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THUNDER BAY, ON – The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) has been granted leave to intervene in a judicial review of an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decision that saw a smalltown mayor’s bank account garnished for declining an activist group’s request to make a “Pride Month” proclamation.

In a November 2024 ruling, the tribunal fined Mayor Harold McQuaker and the municipality of Emo, Ontario a total of $15,000 after an adjudicator found that a comment that the mayor had made before the vote against the proclamation proved that the vote was motivated by discrimination.

The CCF will argue the Tribunal failed to consider Mayor McQuaker’s Charter-protected right to freedom of expression and failed to apply the legal framework for balancing expression and the right to equality, established by the Supreme Court of Canada in Ward v. Quebec.

The controversy began in 2020 when Borderland Pride asked Emo’s council to declare June “Pride Month” and display the LGBTQ2 rainbow flag. During debate over whether to make the proclamation, Mayor McQuaker remarked, “There’s no flag being flown for the other side of the coin… there’s no flags being flown for the straight people.” Council declined to raise the rainbow flag, citing the lack of a municipal flagpole.

Council then voted 3–2 against the proposed proclamation. Adjudicator Karen Dawson agreed with Borderland Pride that the mayor’s remark prior to the vote proved that the vote was discriminatory, and awarded the group $5,000 from the mayor and $10,000 from the 1,200-person township. In addition, the mayor and Emo’s Chief Administrative Officer were ordered to undergo a “Human Rights 101” course within 30 days. Shortly after the decision, Borderland Pride was granted an order to garnish the mayor’s bank account, taking the $5,000 plus costs.

“Human rights tribunals exist to prevent discrimination in public services, not to censor good faith political debates,” said Josh Dehaas, Counsel for the CCF. “The bar for limiting political speech in Canada is high, yet there’s no evidence the Tribunal even considered the mayor’s expression rights,” he added.

No date has been set for the hearing.