ownship of Emo and Mayor Harold McQuaker’s application for judicial review of a 2024 Borderland Pride v. Emo Human Rights Tribunal (HRTO) ruling will go ahead in Divisional Court on Nov. 30, after previously being dismissed due to skipping mandatory administrative steps.
The original HRTO ruling stated that Emo and its mayor were to pay $15,000 in damages to cross‑border LGBTQ2+ community organization Borderland Pride, with McQuaker personally liable for $5,000, after it was determined the township had discriminated against the group when it declined a request from Borderland to recognize Pride Month in 2020.
McQuaker and the township challenged the HRTO ruling in 2024, but on June 15 this year, the Divisional Court declined to hear the case on the grounds that they had filed the request for a judicial review without first taking the required step of requesting reconsideration from the HRTO itself. The court ordered Emo and McQuaker to take the proper route of first filing the HRTO reconsideration request within 30 days of the 2024 ruling.
The HRTO request was filed on July 9 this year—597 days late from when it was supposed to be initially filed in 2024. The tribunal’s vice-chair Joseph Tascona ruled last August that the request was made far too late and did not meet the requirements for reconsideration.
Now, having followed the proper protocols of requesting reconsideration and being denied, the application for judicial review at the Divisional Court level will proceed at the end of November, according to Judson Howie LLP, a law firm in which Douglas Judson, co-chair of Borderland Pride, is a partner.
“Township of Emo and Mayor Harold McQuaker’s application for judicial review of Borderland Pride v. Emo (Township), 2024 HRTO 1651, will proceed before the Divisional Court, via Zoom, on Nov. 30, 2026,” Judson wrote in a media advisory.
A full breakdown of the events and legal proceedings between Borderland Pride and Emo leading up to this judicial review was published in the Aug. 19, 2026 edition of The Times, available at www.fftimes.com.
