Dear Editor:
At what point will Township of Emo CAO Crystal Gray start fulfilling her statutory duties instead of misleading the public about their right to information on the municipality’s runaway spending to protect the homophobia of three old men?
The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act grants the public access to most municipal records, with limited exceptions. Requests for information about municipal spending—including legal costs—are routine. (That’s how we know, for instance, that Fort Frances spent nearly $40,000 fighting a $13,000 Small Claims Court case in 2023.)
In response to a Fort Frances Times’ request for the total of the Township of Emo’s legal costs related to Borderland Pride’s successful discrimination claim, Ms. Gray now claims the information is confidential under solicitor-client privilege.
She’s lying—and she knows it. Borderland Pride made a similar request last year. Although also denied and now subject to appeal, the municipality was made aware of rulings by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario confirming that legal spending by municipalities is not privileged.
In fact, in 2023, the Commissioner’s decision in Re Township of Puslinch (Order MO-4332) made clear that not only are municipalities required to disclose total legal expenditures under access to information laws, but also lawyers’ invoices—with only truly privileged portions redacted.
Ms. Gray’s refusal to provide this information to the Times should make it clear: Emo’s council terrified that ratepayers—whose taxes have steadily increased—will learn how much of their money has been wasted defending Mayor Harold McQuaker’s bigotry.
Emo residents have already paid for four years of litigation leading to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario’s decision last fall. Now they are also funding Mayor McQuaker’s and council’s (separately represented) judicial review, piling on even more legal bills—all shielded from public view. The Township’s secrecy is now under appeal before the Commissioner, and a related reprisal complaint has been filed at the Tribunal over the refusal of Borderland Pride’s request.
None of these proceedings allow the Township to recover costs. The only winners here are the lawyers—paid with public dollars while transparency is deliberately suppressed by Ms. Gray.
While the mayor and council are political actors, Ms. Gray is not. As a public servant, she is legally obligated to uphold the municipality’s transparency obligations. If she is being prevented from doing her job, she should resign. Instead, she has allowed herself to be conscripted into the Mayor’s taxpayer-funded litigation spending spree—and its cover-up.
Sincerely,
Douglas W. Judson
Borderland Pride
