Mayor who stood up to Pride group has bank account garnished
Emo Mayor Harold McQuaker faces stiffer justice from authorities than bank robbers and carjackers
Author of the article:Joe Warmington
Published Dec 07, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
Emo Township in Nothern Ontrario has been ordered to a $10,000 pay a fine by the Ontario Human Rights Commission for not voting to fly a Pride flag
Emo Township in Nothern Ontrario has been ordered to a $10,000 pay a fine by the Ontario Human Rights Commission for not voting to fly a Pride flag
LGBTQ2+ activists have literally made Emo Township Mayor Harold McQuaker pay for daring to stand up to them.
Although the Northern Ontario municipal leader vowed not to honour a $5,000 fine the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) levied against him for comments surrounding town council not approving a motion to approve Pride month, he wasn’t given a choice.
In fact, the winner of the judgement that McQuaker called “extortion” has boasted it has already gone into his bank account to collect the money.
“Sure, sex is great, but have you ever garnished your mayor’s bank account after he publicly refused to comply with a Tribunal’s order to pay damages?” states a Borderland Pride post on Facebook.
It seems like they are enjoying this.
Council may not have let them raise a rainbow flag for Pride month but they are planting a flag in the ground to show Emo is their town.
“Mayor McQuaker’s comments in the Toronto Sun and other media were very clear that he did not respect nor intend to comply with the Tribunal’s orders,” Borderland Pride said in an email. “Consequently, it was apparent he would not voluntarily make payment of the damages ordered. We took immediate action to garnish his bank account.”
What McQuaker told the Sun was, “I utterly refuse to pay the $5,000 because that’s extortion” and also said he would not partake in an Ontario Human Rights Commission re-education course.
On ensuring he did pay, Borderland Pride said, “The garnishment was issued by the court and delivered to the CIBC in Emo, which is the only bank in that community” and ”there is no hearing or application to issue a notice of garnishment – it is a service provided at the court counter or online once a person has an order for the payment of money.”
Borderland Pride also wrote, “Orders of the Tribunal can be enforced in the same manner as any civil judgment for the payment of money. We intend to ensure the Tribunal’s orders are complied with.”
Turns out Mayor McQuaker is not in charge there – Borderland Pride is.
Cancel culture is cancelling this mayor and digging into his personal savings too. On a weak premise that there is discrimination of LGBT people there, the enforcement is harsher than most violent criminals receive. It seems like a heavy-handed, undemocratic move, not to mention a violation of personal finances, and cruel and unusual punishment.
It’s also a slippery slope.
Borderland Pride has taken Emo, Ontario by storm
Borderland Pride has taken Emo, Ontario by storm
The state using legal instruments to take from one person and give to others amounts to communism and authoritarianism that should scare every citizen. First, we saw government and banks freezing accounts of pandemic lockdown protesters, seizing donations to crowdfunding sites, and now in woke Canada comes word they can raid bank accounts, too.
A creeping police state is what should be cancelled, not a venerable village mayor. Just because people get the whip hand on somebody, does not mean they need to wield it. Power is not power when it’s abused. Restraint and fair play is power.
There is no decision so far on the status of the $10,000 fine HRTO slapped on the Township of Emo for the 2020 decision by town council to vote three to two against granting a request for there to be a Pride month in the village of just 1,400 people. And Borderland Pride said they have so far not garnished the township as they await that decision.
What’s McQuaker’s next move? Bow to the woke mob? Appeal? Resign? Fight on?
“I will not be commenting until next Wednesday (council’s next meeting) when we will make a statement,” McQuaker said Friday, adding his “knuckles have been rapped” this week.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford should send Municipal Affairs Minister Paul Calandra to intervene and end this madness, get both sides to shake hands with a compromise and be friends. Great grandfather McQuaker is a good citizen and so are the Borderland Pride volunteers. No one ever wins in a game of chicken.
This occurred because democracy wasn’t respected when the town decided to pass on having Pride month. The Tribunal’s Vice Chair Karen Dawson claimed “Mayor McQuaker’s remark … that there was no flag for the ‘other side of the coin … for straight people’ was on its face dismissive of Borderland Pride’s flag request and demonstrated a lack of understanding of the importance to Borderland Pride and other members of the LGBTQ2 community of the Pride flag.”
Dawson wrote, “I find this remark was demeaning and disparaging of the LGBTQ2 community of which Borderland Pride is a member and therefore constituted discrimination under the code.”
Borderland Pride has won its case against Emo Township in Northern Ontrario. They have been ordered to a $10,000 pay a fine by the Ontario Human Rights Commission for not voting to fly a Pride flag
Borderland Pride has won its case against Emo Township in Northern Ontrario. They have been ordered to a $10,000 pay a fine by the Ontario Human Rights Commission for not voting to fly a Pride flag
But more offensive than anything McQuaker said is this ruling, which ignores McQuaker’s free speech and council’s free vote. It was an overreaction to a comment from a 76-year-old man in a town a long way from progressive municipalities more accustomed to Pride celebrations and who have a legitimate demand for them.
Instead of searching for a middle ground, blunt force was employed to destroy a good man who has served his community well. He doesn’t’ accept that he’s homophobic.
McQuaker maintains he doesn’t “hate anybody” and “did not do anything wrong.”
“If anybody needs training, it’s the LGBTQ2+ to quit pushing their weight around and make demands that people can’t live with,” he said.
This seems like a modern-day witch hunt.
While they didn’t win the June Pride month designation, Borderland Pride is winning the Battle of Emo now and using Ontario oversight and procedures to do it. Like it or not, with the help of highly-skilled, experienced and professional lawyer Douglas Judson, they are using the law and it is ruling in their favour.
However, it’s not helping Canada. And rubbing the Mayor’s nose in it and spiking the football on social media is unseemly.
But Borderland Pride says “despite suggestions in your prior reporting and elsewhere which portray the Mayor as elderly, vulnerable, or somehow economically disadvantaged, he owns a successful trucking company and is likely one of the wealthiest people in the community.”
While his financial status should be irrelevant, McQuaker is $5,000 poorer thanks to his bank account being garnished.
And a country understands Borderland Pride is the new boss.
jwarmington@postmedia.com
LGBTQ2+ activists have literally made Emo Township Mayor Harold McQuaker pay for daring to stand up to them.
torontosun.com