Juno News - August 09, 2023


CAUGHT ON TAPE: DEI instructor bullied Richard Bilkszto in 2021 anti-racism session


Episode Stats


Length

28 minutes

Words per minute

169.83215

Word count

4,769

Sentence count

227

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Toxicity

12

sentences flagged

Hate speech

22

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Richard Bilkstow, a 24-year veteran of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) lost his life after being berated by Kike Ojo Thompson, a racist diversity, equity and inclusion consultant, in front of his peers. Now, politicians and activists are rallying to support Thompson, painting her as the victim in this story.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 You might think that the horrific suicide of Richard Bilkstow, a 24-year veteran Toronto
00:00:11.200 principal and teacher after being publicly bullied and shamed by a racist diversity,
00:00:16.960 equity and inclusion consultant in front of his peers, would lead the woke, self-flagellating
00:00:23.400 and nation-hating advocates of this ideology to pause and perhaps reconsider their efforts
00:00:28.800 to label everyone and everything an agent of white supremacy in perhaps the least racist country on
00:00:36.120 earth. But you'd be wrong. It appears as though the death of Richard Bilkstow has only emboldened
00:00:41.040 the DEI industry in this country and, as to be expected, strengthened their resolve to continue
00:00:47.120 their culture of making Maoist struggle sessions a compulsory element of training for everyone
00:00:52.980 everywhere. Would you be surprised to learn that politicians and activists are now rallying to
00:00:58.600 the defense of Kike Ojo Thompson, painting this rich black woman who berated Bilkstow as the real
00:01:05.520 victim in this story? Last week, the audio of the interactions between Kike Ojo Thompson and Richard
00:01:12.440 Bilkstow during these DEI training sessions back in 2021 was released by the journalists over at the
00:01:19.000 Free Press. And let me tell you, the audio of these interactions is just as vile and gross as you're 0.53
00:01:24.780 likely expecting it to be. A woman who has made a career out of telling white people that they're 1.00
00:01:28.600 not anti-racist enough is her telling this room of Toronto principles that Canada is a more racist 0.99
00:01:34.460 country than the United States and that Canada is a bastion of white supremacy. And because Bilkstow 0.96
00:01:39.980 stood up and challenged her absurd statements, she very confidently singled him out and verbally 0.87
00:01:45.800 abused him, called him a weed, and called him an apologist for white supremacy. After all, when you 0.81
00:01:52.600 get hired by the United States government to lead DEI training sessions and are given over a million
00:01:58.200 dollars by the Canadian government, what's one white principal standing up and telling you that
00:02:02.840 you're wrong? And perhaps most damning of all, in the series of DEI training sessions, not a single
00:02:08.940 person stood up for a man who has been lauded by the TDSB for his decades of service, for being a champion
00:02:15.020 of equality, merit, and education for all. Nobody said anything because standing up for their good
00:02:21.420 colleague would mean putting their own lives and careers in danger. This is a cultural revolution
00:02:26.520 that we are in and Richard Bilkstow's suicide will serve as a cultural flashpoint not just in Canada
00:02:32.820 but around the world as well. Drop a like in the video, help us out by subscribing to the True North
00:02:36.980 YouTube channel, stick around for an interview with the journalist that broke these audio tapes,
00:02:41.400 and the comment question for the episode is this. What is the end goal for these DEI and anti-racism
00:02:48.100 consultants who seem to take joy in bullying and harassing white people like Richard Bilkstow? Let
00:02:53.720 me know in the comments and let's get into it. In 2015, Richard Bilkstow was described by his
00:02:59.000 supervisor as an experienced, effective, and highly accomplished educational leader. His supervisor
00:03:05.260 went on to say that Bilkstow had proven his excellence in equity, instruction, entrepreneurship,
00:03:12.120 and student engagement. She finished off by describing Bilkstow as a leader among leaders.
00:03:18.160 For 24 years, Richard Bilkstow devoted his life to teaching and educating the youth of Toronto to
00:03:25.420 champion merit, hard work, academic excellence, and equality of opportunity to make sure that everyone
00:03:32.780 in Toronto had the same shot at success. But you see, somewhere along Richard Bilkstow's 24-year
00:03:40.400 journey in the TDSB, the idea of equality of opportunity gave way to equality of outcome, better
00:03:47.840 known now as equity. And equity is really just a polite way of saying discrimination against white
00:03:53.040 people. But in 2021, after coming out of retirement to take on the position of principal at Burnham
00:03:58.800 Thorpe Public School, Richard Bilkstow was forced to attend a DEI training session led by Kike Ojo 1.00
00:04:06.700 Thompson of the Kojo Institute, a woman who has made her career off of finding white supremacy and 0.79
00:04:12.960 racism where it doesn't exist and making every white person feel guilty for things they haven't done.
00:04:18.820 Anyway, in these DEI training sessions, which are really just Maoist struggle sessions against white 0.52
00:04:23.820 people, Kike Ojo Thompson can be heard telling people things like this.
00:04:29.720 The racism is, we experience this far worse here than there. So I know that's going to be a hard one
00:04:36.720 to people wrap their head around, but that's the level of white supremacy. Like Canada's a bastion of
00:04:41.940 white supremacy and colonialism. Like they at least had a fighting posture against at least the monarchy.
00:04:48.580 Here we celebrate the monarchy, the very heart and soul and origin of the colonial structure.
00:04:55.480 Think about that, right? And all that it represents. We hold it dear still.
00:05:00.600 Canada is more racist than the United States. Canada is a bastion of white supremacy. It's more 1.00
00:05:07.080 racist than the United States because we have the monarchy and we celebrate the monarchy, which I find
00:05:12.260 particularly funny because it's precisely because of the monarchy and the British influence in Canada
00:05:16.900 that led upper Canada in 1793 to be the first British colony to abolish slavery. Not standing
00:05:23.780 for the outrageous slander of our great country, Bilkstow made what proves to be a fatal mistake.
00:05:30.220 He thought he could stand up to this woman and say that as a matter of fact, she's completely wrong.
00:05:36.540 Well, this is what it sounded like when Richard was the only person in that Zoom call to stand up
00:05:40.760 and speak the obvious.
00:05:43.440 I understand. I want to hear what you're saying, right? However, I think to ignore that fact,
00:05:48.640 right, that we, we talked about here about, you know, capitalism, socialism. We're very happy here.
00:05:55.040 We have a public education system where everyone is funded the same way. It's not like that United
00:05:59.600 States. We have a healthcare system here where everyone has access to healthcare. It is not the
00:06:05.120 same way in the United States. So to say, sit here and say, all honesty, we're talking about facts and
00:06:11.780 figures and to walk into the classroom tomorrow and say, Canada is just as bad as the United States.
00:06:17.420 I think we're doing an incredible disservice to our learners, incredible disservice to our learners.
00:06:22.300 And again, yeah, that's what I want to want to say that, right?
00:06:25.320 Thank you so much. What I'm finding interesting is that in the middle of this COVID disaster,
00:06:31.860 where the inequities in this fair and equal healthcare system have been properly shown to
00:06:40.520 all of us. I mean, so it's just, and so what's fascinating is, and this is why we're in this
00:06:47.100 place that we're in, is that you think, so we're talking about anti-black racism, but you and your
00:06:51.700 whiteness think that you can tell me what's really going on for black people. Like, is that what you're 0.98
00:06:56.900 doing? I think that's what you're doing, but I'm not sure. So I'm going to leave you space to tell me
00:07:01.360 what you're doing right now.
00:07:04.340 Exactly. I just wanted to make the point. You were talking about the United States,
00:07:07.260 and I just want to do a comparison. And as I said, you talked about facts and figures and,
00:07:12.200 and, and, and, you know, listening to the facts and figures. And I think if everyone here looks
00:07:16.720 at the facts and figures and all kinds of, all kinds of studies, and, uh, you'll see we're a far
00:07:23.500 more just society. We have, we have room for improvement. Absolutely. Are we racist and everything?
00:07:27.840 Absolutely. Great. This is Andrew from the Poetry Institute. Yeah.
00:07:31.660 Yeah. Just to talk about everything that Keith has been saying, you know, we're not here to compare,
00:07:36.040 you know, we're not here to say, this is worse than the next one. No. And not, no, listen, just,
00:07:39.920 you know, we hear what you're saying. So I, you know, I hate to disagree with you in this forum,
00:07:44.200 but, uh, it's just not, not relevant what you bring up. And unfortunately, the experience of
00:07:50.180 indigenous, black, and racialized students in the TDSB, probably in whatever school you lead,
00:07:55.700 are just not good enough. And that's just the reality. So I think if we want to be an apologist 0.99
00:08:01.680 for, for the United States or Canada, this really isn't the forum for that.
00:08:05.320 Now listen to Kike Ojo Thompson in this clip. The following meeting, after previously berating 0.63
00:08:10.940 Richard Bilkstow in front of his colleagues, she's laughing to herself and she says she can't
00:08:15.900 believe her luck that someone would resist against the claims that Canada is a bastion of white 1.00
00:08:21.460 supremacy.
00:08:21.900 But one of the ways that white supremacy is upheld, protected, reproduced, upkept,
00:08:29.540 um, defended is through resistance. And like I said, as I began to speak earlier, we had, I'm so lucky.
00:08:38.000 I would have thought my luck would show up so well last week that we got perfect evidence of a
00:08:44.720 wonderful example of resistance that you all got to bear witness to. So we're going to talk about it.
00:08:49.980 Um, because I mean, it doesn't get better than this.
00:08:52.680 It's in this moment that Ojo Thompson essentially calls Bilkstow a white supremacist in front of his
00:08:57.540 colleagues. And notice what she says at the very end. It doesn't get better than this. What an
00:09:02.780 astonishing thing to say. Not only did no principals stand up for Bilkstow, other principals on that call
00:09:08.740 joined the pylon. One principal, who's only identified as Lisa, calls Bilkstow the whiteness.
00:09:15.600 Bilkstow would leave Burnham Thorpe and go on sick leave, citing workplace harassment. The Workplace
00:09:21.280 Safety and Insurance Board supported Bilkstow's claim of workplace harassment. And the findings for
00:09:27.100 this 2021 workplace tribunal about what happened between Bilkstow and Thompson really says all you
00:09:32.580 need to know. Based on the information on file, I am satisfied that the conduct of the speaker
00:09:37.180 was abusive, egregious, and vexatious, and rises to the level of workplace harassment and bullying.
00:09:43.960 The WSIB's view was that the DEI trainer intended to cause reputational damage and to make an example
00:09:50.700 out of Bilkstow. You might think that these Maoist struggle sessions that bully, berate,
00:09:55.640 and single out people who dare to stand up and defend the truth, might be facing more scrutiny
00:10:00.940 now that Richard Bilkstow has taken his life, and this story has become international news.
00:10:06.860 But actually, it seems as though the opposite has occurred. Over the weekend, a rally was held
00:10:11.820 in support of Kike Ojo-Thompson and the Kojo Institute in Hamilton. And speaking at this rally
00:10:18.060 was an Ontario NDP member of parliament, Matthew Green. Listen as he singles out conservative
00:10:24.360 commentators for attacking Kike Ojo-Thompson and basically makes Ojo-Thompson out to be the victim
00:10:30.700 in this story. Those right-wing media pundits who would seek to weaponize this moment of tragedy
00:10:37.760 against Kike and the Kojo Institute, I have this to say. It is not because of her lack of preparedness 0.68
00:10:47.320 or unprofessionalism. No. It is precisely because Kike and the Kojo Institute 1.00
00:10:53.660 and every single anti-racist and equity worker that is doing this work is effective in dismantling
00:11:00.480 white supremacy, is effective in addressing anti-blackness in these classrooms and in these
00:11:06.380 public spaces that has this moment of reaction. I want to be clear that every single speaker today
00:11:13.880 could have been Kike, could have been the Kojo Institute, could have been targeted by the 0.84
00:11:20.720 violence of white supremacy online and in our communities, could have been any one of us.
00:11:26.680 So I just want to say in closing, thank you. Thank you not just to Kike and the Kojo Institute
00:11:34.320 and all those who stood in solidarity with her in that moment. Know that she is a personification
00:11:40.580 of the struggles that we have, of the progress and the fights that we have won. And in this country
00:11:46.280 which is a supposed bastion of white supremacy according to Kike Ojo Thompson, Kike manages to 1.00
00:11:51.660 find a way to get over a million dollars in government grants for her critical race theory 0.99
00:11:56.660 DEI projects. Aside from running the Kojo Institute, Kike happens to run an organization called the 1.00
00:12:03.360 Parents of Black Children. And on the Parents of Black Children website, they proudly present to the
00:12:09.580 world that they have received over a million dollars in government grants. Now these government grants
00:12:14.700 come from, as far as we can tell, the city of Toronto and the Ontario government, you know, led by that
00:12:20.540 true conservative Doug Ford and that really principled conservative education minister Stephen Lecce.
00:12:26.400 And because we're living in this cultural revolution where anyone who dares to speak up about this
00:12:30.540 absurd nonsense is immediately cancelled and basically blacklisted from their jobs, the TDSB,
00:12:36.280 the Ontario Principals Council, and of course the Ontario Ministry of Education led by that true
00:12:41.260 conservative Stephen Lecce have all recommitted to anti-racism and DEI training. After all, the entire
00:12:48.040 DEI industry itself relies on finding white supremacy and racism where it doesn't exist. Once you and your
00:12:55.740 organization have successfully rooted out systemic racism, organizations like the Kojo Institute and
00:13:01.520 race grifters like Kike Ojo Thompson would be out of work. So of course, no matter how much 1.00
00:13:06.540 institutions like the TDSB collectively bend the knee, institute racial quotas, and admit to upholding
00:13:12.420 white supremacy, it will always still exist. White supremacy will always be there because women like 1.00
00:13:17.580 Kike Ojo Thompson need to make their money somehow. Canada may be, in fact, the least racist country on 0.95
00:13:23.820 earth. I can say that with confidence because in our society, we simply don't tolerate racists.
00:13:28.820 But is it actually even true? Because in Canada, white men are routinely excluded from jobs, and
00:13:34.640 employers will openly and without hesitation advertise jobs where white men need not apply. In fact, the
00:13:42.120 Ontario Human Rights Commission makes it clear that this practice is, in fact, totally acceptable. 0.96
00:13:47.420 The Ontario Human Rights Code allows special programs to relieve disadvantage or achieve equal
00:13:52.800 opportunity to counter the effects of systemic discrimination. Such programs include measures to
00:13:58.500 remove barriers that discriminate against groups and make sure that disadvantaged groups have the
00:14:03.280 same advantages that others take for granted. According to this National Post article by Jamie
00:14:07.620 Sarkanak in April of 2023, being not white, male, or able-bodied was a requirement for the University of
00:14:14.560 British Columbia's 2022 Research Chair job postings in food science and quantum computing. Similar
00:14:21.240 requirements were listed for the University of Toronto's positions in management, education,
00:14:25.380 dentistry, engineering, and medicine. Now, this is what equity in practice looks like. Joining us now
00:14:30.820 on the show is the journalist that broke the audio tapes of those interactions between Richard
00:14:36.840 Bilkstow and Kika Ojo Thompson. Rupa Subramania, one of my colleagues here at True North, also the host of
00:14:43.300 the Rupa Subramania show. Rupa, thanks for coming on the show.
00:14:46.760 Thanks, Harrison. It's great to be on your show.
00:14:48.720 So you released the audio tapes of these interactions. As I said in the show, they're
00:14:54.320 just as gross and disgusting as I think anyone imagined them to be. You clearly hear Kika just 1.00
00:15:01.920 berating Richard Bilkstow, singling him out because he dared to say that Canada was in fact
00:15:07.200 not as racist as the United States. It just goes, it gets worse from there. But the fallout of this
00:15:14.020 story, I find to be more interesting. You now have politicians in Canada rallying to Kika Ojo Thompson's
00:15:21.940 defense, to the Kojo Institute's defense. They're holding speeches and doing rallies, shamelessly
00:15:27.180 defending her and making Kika Ojo Thompson the victim of the story. The victim of the story,
00:15:33.700 not of course being Richard Bilkstow, the man who took his life. What do you make of this defense
00:15:38.740 of Kika and the Kojo Institute and really the DEI industry?
00:15:44.040 Yeah, thanks, Harrison. So my story for the Free Press, which includes the audio recordings,
00:15:51.720 which I was able to obtain big chunks of the audio recordings of the DEI session
00:15:58.380 that Richard Bilkstow attended, where he was bullied and smeared as a white supremacist,
00:16:08.000 makes for, you know, it's very difficult to listen to it. It's very painful. You can see just how
00:16:14.100 horrific the whole thing was and how, you know, what he must have been going through when you had
00:16:20.080 this person, you know, bullying him and laughing, you know, as she's bullying him. And then you had
00:16:30.020 his colleagues mercilessly pile on him. And, and, and it was, you know, you, it just makes you realize
00:16:38.000 just, just, you know, just how devastated he must have felt, how let down he must have felt. So
00:16:43.660 I'm not entirely surprised at the fact that you have politicians, like the, this NDP politician,
00:16:52.660 Matthew Green, I believe that's whom you're referring to. I'm not at all surprised that,
00:16:57.320 that, you know, people like that are rallying in defense of Ojo Thompson, because that's,
00:17:05.460 that's their ideology. That's what they're going to defend. They're, they're not going to,
00:17:09.400 you know, this is, this is for them. It's as Richard said in an interview with the free press
00:17:17.680 before he, he died, this was a few months ago. He, he said, you know, these school boards,
00:17:26.920 it's, or at least at the TDSP, it's not, it's not about competence anymore. It's all about the
00:17:33.140 ideology. And I think that, that, that would have, that applies to the political establishment as well,
00:17:40.300 especially with, with the NDP. So I'm not at all surprised that they're coming in support of her,
00:17:45.980 because if, if they didn't, I mean, that would, I mean, I would have, I would have, you know,
00:17:52.160 I would have liked to have seen them do something different, but this was fully expected as far as I'm
00:17:57.320 concerned. Right. And, and in those audio recordings, as you point out, it's not just that
00:18:02.920 the principals, the other 199 principals at that meeting are silent. In fact, as you point out,
00:18:09.500 some of them are piling onto Richard. This man was lauded by the TDSP for his decades of service to
00:18:16.420 the school board for being a champion of equality and fairness in schools. And the moment that Kike 1.00
00:18:23.540 singles him out, everyone else stays silent. And in fact, even worse, they start to pile on.
00:18:29.180 I noticed a tweet you put out Rupa. I think it was just a few days ago after this story came out
00:18:34.140 and you had put out a call to any of the other 200 school principals that were in these meetings
00:18:40.820 to speak anonymously to you about this. And you point out that not a single person has come forward.
00:18:47.120 People are afraid to show a, to defend this man who was completely berated and bullied in front of
00:18:55.460 all of his peers. Why do you think there's this culture of fear that, that surrounds the DEI industry?
00:19:02.460 Well, I mean, I mean, it's a very important question. And the answer to that is, you know,
00:19:09.940 has many layers. It's, it's, it's complicated. So you have, um, a culture of compliance and political
00:19:17.560 correctness in Canada, which, uh, predates all of this stuff. Um, all of the DEI and the culture wars
00:19:24.680 and wokeism. It, it, it goes even before that. And then, uh, and so the environment, in my opinion,
00:19:31.260 um, was just ripe for all of these things to take root, um, uh, cultural Marxism and, um, uh, diversity,
00:19:40.940 equity, inclusion, critical race theory, all of that stuff. Actually, I think, uh, Canada was just,
00:19:47.520 uh, prime for that. It was just, it was just there, you know, the environment was there for,
00:19:52.500 for these things to take root. And, um, and, and, and, and, and so I think you have a set of people who
00:19:58.980 truly believe in this, they truly, you have, uh, white people who truly are ashamed of the fact
00:20:05.280 that they're white. Um, they, they are very, um, you know, they, I think they're ashamed of who they 1.00
00:20:11.460 are. Uh, look, I mean, no one's denying that, you know, colonialism is bad and, you know, things that
00:20:18.320 happened under colonialism were bad. And, you know, most sensible people would agree that, you know,
00:20:24.440 what happened in the past was, was, was, was, you know, is not something that we would support today.
00:20:29.780 But as I've argued in many, many, um, uh, places, uh, including on a debate that I was part of, uh,
00:20:38.000 the monk debates about two years ago, the Canada of today is not the Canada of 1867. We've made a lot
00:20:44.060 of progress since then, and we're not, we're not the same country. Uh, we made a lot of gains towards, uh,
00:20:50.440 inclusion and that sort of thing. And that's one reason why I chose to come to Canada all those
00:20:56.600 years ago, because I, because, you know, I, I, I thought this country was different from every other
00:21:01.980 country. So, uh, the, the fact is that, um, that, uh, you know, there is a culture of fear, but there's
00:21:09.440 a culture of fear everywhere, uh, in, you know, all over the world, but there's something that's unique,
00:21:16.980 I believe that's happening here. It's unique to Canada. I think it's a culture of cowardice. I
00:21:22.520 think that's what I said a few days ago. Uh, I'm just tired of the excuse of the culture of fear
00:21:27.320 because, you know, we're all fearful of, uh, losing our jobs of, you know, I'm fearful of, uh, you know,
00:21:33.580 that, uh, that, you know, I may one day stop writing, you know, we all have our fears. We all have
00:21:38.260 bills to pay. We all have, um, uh, things that we depend on. Nobody wants, uh, that to be taken away
00:21:44.940 from us. Uh, no one wants that to be taken away, but, but here you have educators, teachers,
00:21:52.780 school principals, vice principals. They're partly in charge of shaping young minds. They're supposed
00:21:58.100 to be cultivating, um, um, uh, critical thinking in, in young people. They're supposed to be telling
00:22:05.020 young people to be not, uh, to not be fearful, to stand up for what is right. And yet these very
00:22:10.860 same people, uh, presided over the bullying, um, of, of, of a man who is just politely and gently
00:22:17.620 pushing against a claim, um, that Canada is not a bastion of white supremacy. And they all either
00:22:24.140 stood by and just watched or, uh, and applauded and, and, and, and piled on him. And that's what's
00:22:31.180 incredibly shocking and disturbing because these, these are people who are educating, uh, uh, you know,
00:22:37.620 our kids today. Um, and so it's, it's, it's quite worrying and it's a cultural cowardice. Not a single
00:22:44.100 person has come forward even to this day, even anonymously saying, Rupa, you know, I was there
00:22:49.120 at this session. All I was really looking for at that point when I sent my tweet more than a week
00:22:54.080 ago was, look, can you corroborate what happened in the session? I'd already listened to the recordings
00:22:58.800 at this point. So, you know, this was just another check. Um, just, just, you know, just tell me,
00:23:04.560 you know, what happened? Is this what happened? What, what, what was that like? So no one,
00:23:08.480 no one came forward and, uh, it's, it's just shameful. I mean, and I think people should,
00:23:12.200 uh, should realize just how brave and courageous, um, these people really are in the real world.
00:23:17.920 They're quite happy to pile on an innocent man in a zoom session, but, uh, they're just cowardly
00:23:22.860 when it comes to actually defending themselves or to be held, held to account for, uh, what they
00:23:28.080 were part of. Yeah. And, and what do you make of this? So Kike calls Canada a bastion of 1.00
00:23:33.960 white supremacy. Uh, it seems to me, Rupa, that there does happen. There does seem to be a double
00:23:39.880 standard in that meeting. You heard that his colleagues were referring to referring to him as
00:23:44.940 the whiteness and that Kike referred to him as a weed, that the weed whacker needed to come out 1.00
00:23:51.160 and put him down. And the reality is that you won't, you won't find any job posting in this country
00:23:58.600 that explicitly excludes say black men or Chinese men from applying. But there are such cases as job
00:24:06.520 postings at universities and other place and other institutions that explicitly exclude white men
00:24:12.200 from being hired. And even the Ontario human rights tribunal has a, has a, a disclaimer underneath
00:24:18.200 systemic discrimination that explicitly allows special programs to relieve disadvantage or achieve
00:24:25.320 equal opportunity to encounter the effects of systemic discrimination. So it doesn't seem to be
00:24:30.840 that Canada is this bastion of white supremacy, obviously, but it does seem to be that in the
00:24:36.520 institutions, not hiring white men is allowed. I mean, what kind of white supremacist country is this? 0.92
00:24:44.520 Yeah. I mean, it's the, you know, this is again, um, revisiting these points that I made up a couple of
00:24:50.440 years ago in this debate that I mentioned, the monk debates, and this is precisely what I was saying,
00:24:54.600 that this is a country that has gone to great lengths to include people, uh, in the, in the, um,
00:25:02.760 you know, in, in, in, in the, in its institutions, um, the leader of, uh, uh, uh, you know, the NDP is
00:25:11.880 a South Asian man, uh, uh, of South Asian descent, um, uh, leading talking heads on TV and
00:25:20.200 elsewhere are, uh, you know, you can see the diversity, um, you know, uh, the, there's no
00:25:26.200 escaping that. Um, and, you know, so, so I'm not, I'm not quite sure where this is coming from, you
00:25:33.960 know, why they insist that Canada is a bastion of white supremacy. It's, it's, it's, it's meant to,
00:25:39.960 uh, shock you. It's meant to be, um, it's, it's meant to rile people up, I suppose. Um, it's not based in
00:25:47.640 fact, uh, and that's what Richard Bilkstow was, uh, trying to, uh, say in that, um, when he, when
00:25:54.280 he stood up and spoke and he said, look, these are the facts. We have a public health, uh, healthcare
00:25:58.840 system that's accessible to everybody. We have a public education system that's accessible to
00:26:03.320 everybody. And that's, that's a fair point. That absolutely is. If in our system, if we all have
00:26:11.560 access to the same thing, but the outcomes, which is what Kiki Oja Thompson was referring to,
00:26:15.880 that the outcomes are different for kids growing up in Jane and Finch neighborhood versus the kids
00:26:20.920 of Forest Hill, the outcomes could be different for a range of different reasons. It's not because
00:26:26.600 of white supremacy, you know, it could be, um, you know, you grew up, grow up in a poor household,
00:26:32.760 you know, you, you have parents who are not there at home, you know, you're left to your own devices.
00:26:38.200 Um, and you're, uh, you know, it could be a range of different factors, but to blame it all on 0.98
00:26:43.880 white supremacy as Kiki Oja Thompson does is just absolutely ridiculous. And it, she should be 1.00
00:26:50.520 lapped out of court for saying something like that. Um, uh, you know, here I am as a person of color,
00:26:56.600 uh, you know, hosting a podcast on, uh, uh, for true north. And I, you know, and I've, I've written
00:27:04.680 for the national post and the pages of the national post. Um, maybe I should thank white supremacy for
00:27:11.400 allowing me these opportunities because, you know, I, I mean, only in Canada would this kind
00:27:17.240 of thing be possible or may, and even in the U S but, but, you know, I cannot imagine this happening
00:27:22.600 anywhere else on the planet. So, uh, so the fact that, you know, I've had these opportunities,
00:27:28.280 um, you know, I, I'm not sitting here and saying it's, it's, it's, you know, it's just outrageous.
00:27:34.040 That's all I can say. Yeah. Well, you know, Rupa, a good man for standing up for his country,
00:27:40.040 for standing up for the truth and for standing up for everyone in that room. He was pushed to
00:27:45.560 the breaking point, a tragic story. And thank you so much for coming on the show, Rupa,
00:27:49.240 really appreciate it. All right, everyone, that's going to do it for us today on the show. Thank you
00:27:52.440 so much for tuning in. My name is Harrison Faulkner, and this is Ration.