How an Ontario town’s refusal to declare Pride month led to a years-long legal battle

When Douglas Judson asked the Township of Emo to declare June as Pride month and display a rainbow flag for a week in 2020, he never imagined the request would turn into a years-long legal dispute that still has no end in sight.

“This is generally a non-controversial thing to ask for,” said Judson, the co-chair of Borderland Pride. “There’s often flag raisings that are done, proclamations are made for various dates or other causes in the community.”

But the town’s refusal to proclaim Pride month has made the northwestern Ontario community of around 1,300 people, near the Minnesota border, a front line in the battle for LGBTQ+ rights.

Every June, rainbow flags are raised in municipalities across the country in recognition of Pride month and to show support for the LGBTQ+ community. As a gay man, Judson said he thought it would be nice if the town where he grew up also offered that recognition.

But things didn’t go as he hoped.

On May 12, 2020, a motion before the township council to declare Pride month was defeated in a 3-2 vote. Borderland Pride, an organization that operates in northwestern Ontario and northern Minnesota, and the Township of Emo have been locked in a human rights and legal battle ever since.

Judson said council members who voted against the group’s request – including Mayor Harold McQuaker – discriminated against the LGBTQ+ community and Borderland Pride had no choice but to take the matter to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.

“In my view, the decision boils down to ignorance, bigotry and a complete … I think lack of compassion and understanding towards a vulnerable minority group,” he said.

Four years after Borderland Pride filed its human rights complaint, the tribunal ruled last November that McQuaker discriminated against the group, but dismissed the complaint against the other two council members who voted against Pride month.

A tribunal adjudicator ordered that the Township of Emo and McQuaker pay $10,000 and $5,000, respectively, to Borderland Pride for infringement of the Human Rights Code. She also ordered the mayor and the township’s chief administrative officer to take a “Human Rights 101” course.

McQuaker and the township are now challenging the tribunal’s ruling with an application for a judicial review of the decision, filed last month in Superior Court in Thunder Bay. Their application argues that the tribunal’s decision and orders are “incorrect in law” and “unreasonable.”

The human rights tribunal ruling had attracted attention from right-wing activists and media outlets in both Canada and the United States, and Judson said that may have influenced the mayor’s decision to take the case to court.

“We’re often seeing a bit of a karaoke reaction in Canada to political mood in the United States … many members of the queer community are watching with concern,” he said of the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric south of the border.

Judson said the mayor’s latest move will be costly for the town’s taxpayers and “dangerous” for the LGBTQ+ people living there.

“They’re looking for a court to tell them that it’s OK to discriminate in the provision of service to a Human Rights Code-protected group, if you don’t support that group or your personal beliefs object to their existence,” he said. “And that is extremely problematic.”

Several attempts by The Canadian Press to reach McQuaker for comment were unsuccessful.

Reached by phone, Emo’s chief administrative officer Crystal Gray said the mayor and the township had no comment as the matter involves a legal proceeding.

When the town announced in December it was seeking a legal challenge of the human rights tribunal ruling, it reiterated its “declaration of equality” from 2022.

“The Township recognizes the dignity and worth of all people, as well as the barriers of discrimination and disadvantage faced by human rights protected groups, including members of the LGBTQ2+ community,” it reads.

Judson said it is especially important that officials in small towns like Emo take the lead in supporting Pride and inclusion initiatives because unlike in major cities, there are far fewer support centres available for LGBTQ+ people.

One of the two Emo councillors who voted in favour of the Pride proclamation was Lincoln Dunn, who is now the general manager of Fort Frances Times, a local publication.

Dunn, who introduced the motion and encouraged his colleagues at the time to pass it, said the human rights tribunal made the “right decision” in November.

“It is ridiculous that this has been blown up in the media the way that it has, and my concern is that it’s going to inflame, you know, more hatred and more intolerance for that community,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Dunn said the cost of the town’s legal battle over Pride month was around $40,000 by the time he left council two years ago, and he thinks that could be well over $100,000 now.

“It is just wasting more money,” he said. “There is an inability to accept that he (the mayor) made a mistake, it’s a failure of leadership and it is costing the taxpayers of Emo for no good reason.”

While Canada has made remarkable progress when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights, much more work needs to be done to safeguard what has been achieved, Dunn said.

“I think that until we reach a point where people feel comfortable being their authentic selves, without fear of reprisal … without the threat of violence or discrimination, we’re not there,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Jan. 17, 2025.

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press