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THUNDER BAY, ONT. – The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) will appear in court today to intervene in a judicial review of a Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario decision that saw a small-town mayor personally fined for voting against a request to proclaim June as Pride Month.

Members of the media can view the hearing live via Zoom (Passcode: 272607) beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. CCF Interim Executive Director Christine Van Geyn will also share live updates via X at @cvangeyn.

The case concerns a 2020 vote by Emo council rejecting a request from gay rights activist group Borderland Pride to proclaim June as Pride Month and display the LGBTQ rainbow flag.

During debate over whether to make the proclamation, Mayor Harold 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 then voted 3–2 against the proposed proclamation and declined to raise the rainbow flag, citing the lack of a municipal flagpole.

In November 2024, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario concluded the mayor’s comments during the debate were discriminatory and ordered the mayor and the township to pay Borderland Pride a total of $15,000. The mayor was personally ordered to pay $5,000, and his bank account was later garnished to collect the money.

The CCF will argue that freedom of expression protects the right of mayors to express minority viewpoints in council meetings and to reject proclamations with which they disagree; that the Tribunal was required to recognize the mayor’s expressive rights were engaged and to proportionately balance those against the objectives of the Code; and that the Tribunal was required to undertake its proportionate balancing by applying the principles from the 2021 Supreme Court decision in Ward v Quebec.

Josh Dehaas, Interim Litigation Director for the CCF, said the Tribunal’s decision threatens to chill political debate by punishing elected officials for expressing viewpoints that differ from the majority.

“If a mayor can be personally fined and his bank account garnished for expressing a view during a council debate and voting accordingly, that should concern anyone who values free and open democratic discussion,” Dehaas said. “Human rights tribunals must respect freedom of expression, even when the views being expressed are considered unpopular or controversial to some.”