Aside from his work as an educator, Bilkszto was an advocate. He was a member of the Toronto chapter of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), an advocacy organization dedicated to civil rights and anti-discrimination, which he took the lead in establishing. In education specifically, he was a member of SOS TDSB, an organization working to preserve the district’s merit-based admissions system for specialty programs (the TDSB recently began using a lottery system to admit students, to the ire of many).
“Richard Bilkszto was a great man,” read the statement of SOS TDSB. “He contributed so much to the fight for quality education, for fairness and a better school system, and we are all so much poorer for his loss. Our heart goes out to his family, friends, and the thousands of students and colleagues he knew, and loved, and who loved him in return.”
Did you know him personally?
Yeah…He sounds like such a racist.