A small rural township in the southwest corner of Northern Ontario and its mayor has been fined $15,000 for “discrimination” following a 2020 vote that decided not to recognize June as Pride Month and to reject flying a Pride Flag.
In 2020, Borderland Pride, an LGBT+ Pride organization for the Rainy River District in Northwestern Ontario, launched a lawsuit against the town, its mayor and councillors for discriminating against a group protected by the Human Rights Code in the provision of services.
The group successfully argued that offering proclamations for community events and causes is a service offered by the municipality and, therefore, cannot discriminate against a group based on protected grounds such as gender identity and gender expression.
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario announced its decision Wednesday that Emo, Ont., would pay $10,000 and its mayor Harold McQuaker, whose vote was the deciding factor on the motion to refuse the Pride Month proclamation, to pay $5,000 to Borderland Pride.
“The Tribunal’s decision affirms that 2SLGBTQIA+ people are entitled to access services offered by their municipality free from discrimination,” Douglas Judson, Co-Chair and Director of Borderland Pride, told True North. “It also sends a strong message that civic leaders in communities of all sizes – including mayors – have obligations to treat members of their community without discrimination on the basis of protected grounds.”
The lawsuit also named Councillors Harrold Boven and Warren Toles, who voted against the motion to accept the Pride group verbiage on a proclamation. However, the Tribunal found their reasons for voting “nay” in good faith and not discriminatory.
“Both wanted to delay the vote until a flags and proclamations policy was in place, and Mr. Boven attempted to move to do so,” the Tribunal said. “Furthermore, following the vote on Borderland Pride’s requests, Mr. Toles proposed proclaiming Pride Month in similar language to the 2019 proclamation that was unanimously passed.”
The defeated motion included that “diversity of sexual orrientation, gender identity and gender expression represents a positive contribution to society and is a matter for our community to take pride, show it’s support and celebrate.”
Boven’s testimony in the case indicated that the verbiage of 2020’s proposed motion was contrary to his own creed and religious beliefs. Still, the tribunal also noted that he said that his faith did not impact his decision to vote against the motion
Neither the township of Emo, Ont. nor McQuaker responded to True North’s requests to comment.
The defence also argued that McQuaker should be shielded from paying damages under Section 448 (1) of the Municipal Act, which shields municipal employees from lawsuits for “any act done in good faith in the performance or intended performance of a duty or authority.” However, the Tribunal found that the mayor had not acted in good faith.
Judson said Borderland Pride sought a resolution on the proclamation of Pride Month itself. He said it never demanded municipalities fly the Pride Flag, as many towns it works in don’t have flag poles for such occasions.
He said that the outcome of the legal challenge was “predictable” as he claims Canadian caselaw spanning nearly 30 years was on the Pride group’s side.
“Human rights complaints made involving the mayors of Hamilton and London resulted in decisions in 1995 and 1997 established that a municipality that makes proclamations at the request of community organizations cannot withhold the service in a discriminatory manner,” he said.
He also said those cases were shared with the Township of Emo in May 2020 when the group asked the municipality to reconsider its decision.
“Instead, the council chose to spend (presumably) hundreds of thousands in taxpayers’ dollars, in addition to the $15,000 that was awarded by the tribunal. We also offered to settle the matter on the basis of a donation to their local public library, which they declined,” Judson said. “They will have to explain to their community why their bigotry was worth that much money.”
