So it sounds like Borderlands Pride made a request in 2020 to the Emo Township to make a proclamation that June would be 'Pride Month' and to display a coinciding Pride flag for 1 week of their choosing during June. If I'm understanding the case history, it appears that the municipality had actually unanimously voted to approve such proclamation the year prior in 2019; however, for some reason this time the council voted 3-2 to reject the request. Seemingly, they had voted 'no' largely because of the flag request noting that the municipality did 'not have a flag pole' or a 'procedure to navigate proclamation requests that involve a display of a flag'. From there, Borderlands Pride sued for discrimination based on
R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19 of the Human Rights Code. The court found that one of the defendants, Mayor Harold McQuaker, engaged in discrimination based off of statements entered into record as part of the fact finding of the case, and therefore ruled in favor of Borderlands Pride.
Tribunal Decision:
https://3fba3a8f-071c-452c-b30d-381328ac8156.usrfiles.com/ugd/3fba3a_be64abac153042fbb365dbbdc080b8fe.pdfSpecific Human Rights Code
R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19 at-play:
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h19/v28Municipal Act of 2001 used as defense by defendants (and rejected by the court):
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/01m25I can't speak to the legal merits of this case and the Tribunal's decision; however, I feel like this could have been handled in a much more productive manner. I especially think this to be the case after reading an open letter from Borderlands Pride prior to the Tribunal case attempting to reach settlement:
https://www.borderlandpride.org/single-post/open-letter-to-the-township-of-emoQuote
In June, our complaint about your bigoted and discriminatory decision to refuse to recognize Pride Month in 2020 will proceed to a full hearing on its merits before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The hearing is scheduled for 5 days. Our legal team will be ready. Our proceeding at the Tribunal is based in case law that has been settled in Ontario for 30 years. We cautioned you about this at the outset of this saga in May 2020 – after you made your ill-advised decision and we asked you to reconsider. In other words: you face an uphill battle in this hearing, and are likely going to lose and be ordered to pay significant compensation to us and the other complainants for violating the Human Rights Code.
Even if you do win (which is a very remote possibility, and one we would likely seek judicial review of), you cannot recover your legal costs at the Tribunal. We imagine that your lawyers have already told you this. It is unclear why you are not heeding that advice, especially after losing your motion to have our claim against the individual council members dismissed.
Emo taxpayers must understand that you have now spent tens of thousands of dollars of their money on exorbitant legal fees to defend the homophobia and transphobia of Harold McQuaker, Harrold Boven, and Warren Toles. Despite those significant expenditures, it is unclear what has been paid for given the very limited material that has been served on us to-date. All of this is an inexcusable and foolish waste of taxpayer money at a time when your council is also hiking taxes and cutting local services.
[more continued in link]
This post was edited by Handcuffs on Dec 3 2024 12:50am