After an in-camera meeting which stretched over two days last week, the Township of Emo will not comment on the results.
The private portion of the regular council meeting session began around 10:30 a.m. December 11, and had several other in-camera items on the agenda including a Human Rights Tribunal Ontario ruling. The HRTO discussion was adjurned to 11:30 a.m. on December 13, with no resolution reported to the public.
While she couldn’t discuss what the purpose of the item related to the HRTO file was, Emo CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Crystal Gray said she’s never had to recess an in-camera session before.
The item is noted as “Advice subject to a solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose.”
A November 20, 2024 HRTO decision ruled that the Township and Mayor Harold McQuaker were found to have violated the human rights of Borderland Pride when they declined to proclaim Pride Week and fly a pride flag in 2020 by a 3-2 vote.
McQuaker and Coun. Harold Boven and former councilor Warren Toles were named in the complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. However, adjudicator Karen Dawson did not find Boven and Toles to have acted in a discriminatory manner as defined by the Human Rights Code and were dropped from the complaint.
McQuaker remained, due to a comment he made following the vote to strike down the requested flag and proclamation.
The HRTO adjudicator’s decision reads as follows:
“It was not disputed that during the May 12 council meeting, shortly after the Borderland Pride vote, Mayor McQuaker remarked, ‘There’s no flag being flown for the other side of the coin…there’s no flags being flown for the straight people.’”
In her decision, Dawson found that the Township of Emo should pay Borderland Pride $10,000 and that McQuaker should pay $5,000 relying on precedent setting cases of a similar sort in London, Ont. and Terrace, B.C. among others.
On December 2, Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington wrote that McQuaker had told him he would not be paying the fine.
“I utterly refuse to pay the $5,000 because that’s extortion,” McQuaker told the Sun.
McQuaker has repeatedly declined to comment directly to Fort Frances Times reporters.
Fort Frances Times General Manager Lincoln Dunn was a councillor in Emo at that time, and voted in favour of the requested Pride Week proclamation, along with fellow councillor Lori-Ann Shortreed.
On Dec. 5 Borderland Pride posted that McQuaker’s bank account had been garnished for the required $5,000 fine.
Borderland Pride had requested that the Township of Emo be ordered to proclaim June as Pride Month in future years but Dawson cited previous cases in which similar remedies were not ordered.
Dawson did order McQuaker and CAO Gray to complete the Ontario Human Rights Commission eLearning Module titled “Human Rights 101” and provide proof of completion to Borderland Pride within 30 days of the date of the decision, which means it must be completed by this Friday.
Gray, who was not the CAO of Emo at the time of the vote which led to the HRTO complaint, stated that she has undergone the training module – one which she’s completed in the past.
In the aftermath of the HRTO decision release, conservative supporters have come out of the woodwork threatening Borderland Pride and other LGBTQ+ supporters in the region. Some groups have started fundraising campaigns for an appeal, however the options for an appeal of an HRTO decision are very narrow.
“There is no right to appeal the HRTO’s decisions. However, in limited circumstances, a party who is dissatisfied with a decision may apply to the Divisional Court for a ‘judicial review’. Applications must be made within 30 days of the decision, with limited exceptions.”
Borderland Pride has requested a public condemnation of the outpouring of hate towards its organization from the Township. That request has not been answered to date.
The organization penned a letter, including several hateful messages they have recieved since the ruling.
“What’s happening right now is that the story has been torqued in a lot of the right leading media in a way that misrepresents what the decision actually says and people are reacting in this very visceral way,” said Doug Judson, Director and co-chair of Borderland Pride.
“Aside from Borderland Pride I’m an employer, I have a workplace with people there that I want to make sure are safe,” said Judson. “I’m concerned about our IT security, because some of the commentary have targeted our technology and suggested that they’re going to. All of these things are very alarming. We’ve had to make reports to the police. There are open investigations against people right now.”
