Unsettling Accounts

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On November 20, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled that the township of Emo and its mayor, Harold McQuaker, 77, had discriminated against an LGBTQ group, under the Ontario Human Rights Code, by denying its request to proclaim June as Pride Month. Borderland Pride had requested Emo make the Pride Month declaration and requested the township fly a "LGBTQ2" flag, despite Emo not having an official flag pole. McQuaker was further found to have violated the human rights code by making a "discriminatory remark" during the town's council meeting about the flag request, saying that there was no flag for the "other side of the coin… for straight people." Tribunal vice-chair Karen Dawson ordered the township to pay a fine of $10,000, while McQuaker was ordered to take a "Human Rights 101" course and pay a $5,000 fine to Borderland Pride. However, McQuaker publicly said that he wouldn't pay the fine, calling it "extortion."

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