Canadian mayor fined for opposing Pride Month. He won’t pay

Mayor Harold McQuaker this week told the Toronto Sun that he will not pay $5,000 or attend a re-education course. In addition to fining the mayor, the Ontario Human Rights Commission ordered the tiny town of Emo, Ontario to pay the LGBT activist group Borderland Pride $10,000. The town’s fine came for deciding in 2020 not to fly an LGBTQ+ pride flag in the month of June. The commission separately fined McQuaker after officials found that he and two city council members violated the Ontario Human Rights Code for refusing to proclaim June as Pride Month for LGBTQ+ people. McQuaker, age 77, called the fine extortion, telling the Sun he also would not host a drag queen story hour at the local library as Borderland Pride had requested. The city council will decide whether or not to pay the $10,000 fine.

How did this situation begin? The activist group in 2020 asked the township, which has just over 1,200 residents, to recognize the annual LGBTQ+ pride celebration and to adopt a motion celebrating diversity of sexual orientation. Borderland Pride also asked that a rainbow Pride flag be displayed in the town. The council voted three to two against the motion and Borderland Pride filed a discrimination claim against the officials. The group offered to drop the proceedings if the mayor and council published an apology, offered financial compensation, instituted diversity training for the council, and agreed to adopt future LGBTQ+ pride proclamations.

Dig deeper: Read Jerry Bowyer’s opinion piece about how Walmart rolled back DEI initiatives.