The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has fined Emo township $10,000 and its mayor $5,000, and ordered the mayor to undergo OHRC training, for voting against a motion to proclaim Pride Month.
Ontario town fined $10,000 for refusing to celebrate pride month | National Post | Tristan Hopper:
November 27, 2024 - ""Emo is a township of about 1,300 people located in the far west of Ontario, along the border with Minnesota. In a decision handed down last week, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled that Emo, its mayor and two of its councillors had violated the Ontario Human Rights Code by refusing to proclaim June as 'Pride Month.' The town was also cited for failing to fly 'an LGBTQ2 rainbow flag,' despite the fact that they don’t have an official flag pole.
"The dispute began in 2020 when the township was approached by the group Borderland Pride with a written request to proclaim June as Pride Month. Attached to the letter was a draft proclamation.... Emo was also asked to fly an 'LGBTQ2 rainbow flag for a week of your choosing.' Borderland Pride then asked Emo to 'email us a copy of your proclamation or resolution once adopted and signed'.... Borderland Pride’s draft proclamation was tabled before a May 2020 meeting of the Emo Township Council, where it was defeated by a vote of three to two.
"The claim of discrimination ultimately hinged on a single line uttered by Emo Mayor Harold McQuaker. When the proclamation came up for consideration, McQuaker was heard to say in a recording of the meeting, 'There’s no flag being flown for the other side of the coin … there’s no flags being flown for the straight people.' As Human Rights Tribunal vice-chair Karen Dawson wrote in her decision, 'I find this remark was demeaning and disparaging of the LGBTQ2 community of which Borderland Pride is a member and therefore constituted discrimination under the Code.' Dawson also ruled that given the 'close proximity” of McQuaker’s comment to his nay vote — that too 'constituted discrimination under the Code'....
"The Human Rights Tribunal ultimately ordered the Township to pay $10,000 to Borderland Pride, and for McQuaker to personally pay them another $5,000.... McQuaker and Emo’s chief administrative officer were also ordered to complete an online course known as 'Human Rights 101' and “provide proof of completion … to Borderland Pride within 30 days.' The course is offered by the Ontario Human Rights Commission....
"In a statement celebrating the decision, Borderland Pride noted that Emo joins both London and Hamilton in the category of Ontario communities that have been 'sanctioned for refusing to adopt proclamations in support of their local Pride organizations.' In 1995, Hamilton Mayor Bob Morrow was fined $5,000 for refusing to proclaim Gay Pride Week. That same year, London, Ont., was similarly fined $10,000 for refusing to officially recognize Pride weekend....
"{A]n April 2024 letter that Borderland Pride sent to Emo on the eve of its Human Rights Tribunal hearing, threaten[ed] an 'impending national public relations tire fire for your council and community' if it went ahead. The township was told they could avoid the hearing only if they apologized, imposed mandatory 'diversity and inclusion' training for council, agreed to undisclosed financial terms, pledged to green-light future Pride proclamations without edits and provide free facilities for a 'charitable drag event … the proceeds of which will support the Emo Public Library.'
"Borderland Pride also said it would return one third of their financial reward to the Emo Public Library, but only if the library hosted a 'drag story time event' on a 'date of our choosing.'
"This is the second time in four months that Borderland Pride has won a five-figure award via legal action. In August, the group won a $35,000 small claims court judgement against a Fort Frances man who wrote a Facebook post saying a Borderland-organized all-ages drag show was a 'pedophile show'.... [A]t the time, Borderland Pride director Douglas Judson outlined his intention to continue imposing 'consequences' on anyone else who attacked them.... ''As a lawyer who does this work that means I’m going to start taking people’s houses and their vehicles and their toys and draining their bank accounts and garnishing their wages because no one is going to stop behaving this way until there are real consequences,” he said."
Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ontario-town-fined-10000-for-refusing-to-celebrate-pride-month
Canadian town fined $10k for refusing to celebrate Pride Month | Sky News Australia | December 3, 2024:
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