Ontario Town Without a Flagpole Fined for Not Flying Pride Flag, Officials Sentenced to Reeducation Course
The small rural Canadian township of Emo (population 1,333) is being ordered by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to pay damages after failing to proclaim Pride Month as instructed back in 2020.
CBC News reports Borderland Pride tasked Emo with the job of declaring June as Pride Month and ordered municipal authorities to fly an “LGBTQ2 rainbow flag for a week of your choosing” despite the fact they lack an official flagpole.
Borderland Pride also asked Emo to “email us a copy of your proclamation or resolution once adopted and signed.”
The Emo township refused. That rejection sparked a years-long arbitration process in which the tribunal ruled against the township, the National Post reports.
The tribunal ruled Borderland Pride will be awarded $15,000, with $10,000 coming from the township itself and the other $5,000 coming from Emo mayor Harold McQuaker.
RELATED — Trucker Who Lived in Communist Romania: “This Is Not Canada Anymore, This Is a Communist Country”
McQuaker and Emo’s chief administrative officer were also ordered to complete an online course known as “Human Rights 101” and “provide proof of completion … to Borderland Pride within 30 days” as recompense for their disobedience.
The Post report notes the course being undertaken as punishment is offered by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
Their latest educational edition opens with an animated video telling participants the Human Rights Code “is not meant to punish.”
Students on the reeducation course are also sternly told “it doesn’t matter if you didn’t intend or mean to discriminate … it’s the impact on the person that matters” because support for “2SLGBTQA plus people” is part of the services required of local government.
