Northwestern Ontario town fined $10K for refusing to celebrate Pride Month

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Peggy

An Ontario town and its mayor have been fined a total of $15,000 for refusing to celebrate Pride Month.

In a decision from Nov. 20, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ordered the Town of Emo to pay $10,000 and Mayor Harold McQuaker to pay $5,000 to Borderland Pride for violating the Human Rights Code and discriminating against the organization The tribunal has also ordered the town’s mayor and CAO to complete human rights training.

The issue began in 2020, when Borderland Pride requested the town declare June as Pride Month and fly or display a LGBTQ2S+ flag for a week during the month of June.

Borderland Pride’s proclamation was discussed at a council meeting in May 2020, where it was defeated 3-2.

Shortly after the vote, Mayor Harold McQuaker, who voted against the proclamation, said, “There’s no flag being flown for the other side of the coin…there’s no flags being flown for the straight people.”

The tribunal called McQuaker’s comment “demeaning and disparaging” of the LGTBTQ2S+ community and constituted it as discrimination.

Harrold Boven and Warren Toles, the two other councillors who voted against the proclamation, were found to have not been discriminatory in their reasoning and were cleared by the tribunal.

The town of Emo, located near the border of Manitoba, has a population of about 1,330. The Human Rights Tribunal’s full decision can be found online.

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