This evening I went to Toronto City Hall to watch Black Lives Matter Toronto get the William P. Hubbard Award for Race Relations. It was a disgusting example of political ambition overriding common decency, BLMTO is one of the most divisive organizations in the city, co-founded by a black supremacist.

I approached the city’s Communications Advisor Susan Pape and asked her for comment on how the city could award a group connected to so much hate (see video below). She asked me to write her and promised a quality response to my question. The letter is below. Stay tuned Thursday for videos of city councillors scurrying away when I asked them the same questions.

Hi Susan,

We spoke last night at the Access Equity & Human Rights Awards and I asked you for comment on racist comments by the Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto (who were given the William P. Hubbard Award). Thank you for agreeing to give me a quality answer to my question.

Here are the details (follow the links for the documentation):

1.) In October 2015 BLMTO Co-Founder wrote on Her Facebook page that “whiteness is not humanness”, “white skin is sub-human”, “white people are recessive genetic defects”, and that “black people through their dominant genes can literally wipe out the human race”

2.) In February 2016 Khogali wrote on Twitter “Please God give me the strength not to cuss/kill these men and white folks here today.”

3.) On March 30th Khogali wrote on Twitter threatening to beat up white women using the racist term “becky”.

4.) On July 8th Joe Warmington of The Sun wrote that Khogali is being investigated for writing chilling threats against the lives of Toronto police officers.

5.) Khogali was part of a group counter-protesting University of Toronto Professor Jordan Peterson’s October 11 demonstration and was filmed calling an Ethiopian refugee a “coon”.

There are 100’s of thousands of people in and out of Toronto who’ve watched the videos and seen Khogali’s overt racism and hate, it’s been covered by local and international news outlets.

My questions for the City are as follows:

1.) How was it justified to give a race relations award to a group co-founded by a person who’s widely known for her racist hate speech? (Yusra was at the ceremony)

2.) BLMTO’s actions (for example, at Pride) have been highly divisive in our city, yet the intent of the Hubbard honor is to be given to “a person or persons whose outstanding achievement and commitment has made a significant contribution toward a positive race relations climate in Toronto.” How did the city rationalize this?

Thank you very much for your time and quick response. I expect to be publishing my late story on Tuesday evening, so would appreciate a response before the end of the day. I’ll call to check in with you in the afternoon if I’ve not heard back by then.

Sincerely,

Greg Renouf