An Ontario town has been fined CA$10,000 (About $7,100 USD) for refusing to declare June as “Pride Month.”
The town of Emo, Ontario, was ruled to have violated the Ontario Human Rights Code in a decision by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. Two councilors and the town’s mayor were also found to have violated the code.
Bizarrely, the town of 1,300 was found guilty of failing to fly “an LGBTQ2 rainbow flag,” even though Emo does not have an official flagpole.
The dispute has been running for some time between Emo and a group called Borderland Pride. In 2020, a draft proclamation by the latter was defeated 3-2 in a town council meeting, during which Mayor Harold McQuaker said, “There’s no flag being flown for the other side of the coin … there’s no flags being flown for the straight people.”
McQuaker’s remark was found to be “demeaning and disparaging” by Human Rights Tribunal vice-chair Karen Dawson, who fined the township $10,000 with McQuaker issued a $5,000 fine. Both the mayor and Emo’s chief administrative officer were also ordered to complete an online course known as “Human Rights 101” as part of the ruling.
Adding insult to injury, Borderland Pride said it would donate one third of the extorted money to the town’s local library, but only if the library hosted a drag queen grooming hour. You can read their full extortion letter below to see that this is nothing more than ideological motivated lawfare, the same sort that Colorado cake artist Jack Phillips has been the target of for over a decade.
Borderland Pride later replied to allegations that they bully towns and cities to bend to their will by stating that they love having that reputation.
Some on social media added additional insight into the bizarre case.
Others were stunned by the decision, with one user likening it to the North Korean regime.
