A remote Canadian town was fined thousands of dollars after it refused to celebrate Pride month and did not hang a rainbow flag.

The Ontario town of Emo was fined $10,000 and its mayor Harold McQuaker was also fined $5,000 on November 20 after a local pride group sued the community with 1,300 for not recognizing Pride Month.

McQuaker and two city councilors will also be required to complete mandatory human rights training within 30 daysaccording to National Post.

They also have proof of their education to Borderland Pride, which filed the discrimination complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.

The discrimination complaint was filed after the mayor said during a recorded meeting in May 2020: “There is no flag for the other side of the coin.”

Council member Lincoln Dunn asked the mayor during the meeting, debating whether the city should recognize Pride month earlier and fly the flag with pride, asking, “Sorry, Harold, what’s the other side of the coin?”

McQuaker replied after a long silence: ‘It’s not flagged for the straight people,’ according to TB News Watch.

The mayor said Emo is a good Christian community and he took everyone into the area’s thoughts when he voted, according to the paper.

Mayor and City Councilor Harrold Boven and Warren Toles voted no, while Lincoln and City Councilwoman Lori Ann Shortreed voted yes to declaring June Pride Month in Emo.

The Ontario town of Emo was fined $10,000 and its mayor Harold McQuaker $5,000 after a local pride group sued the community of 1,300 for not recognizing Pride Month

The discrimination complaint was filed after the mayor (pictured) said during a recorded meeting in May 2020: “There are no flags for the other side of the coin. There are no flags for the straight people

– It is a tough situation. We in the community have absolutely nothing against anyone who lives here or what their thoughts are. Democracy consists of all different people and the majority rules, he said then.

“Sometimes decisions don’t suit all people. I personally, and as the mayor of Emo, have nothing against LGBTQ lifestyles. I have always believed in majority rules in a democracy.

“We have three flags. We have our Canadian flag, our provincial flag and our municipal flag. And I’m proud of all three of them.

Borderland Pride director Douglas Judson said asking cities to pass such legislation is a formality these days.

Larger areas, such as Toronto and Hamilton, symbolic proclamations are standard, according to The mail.

Judson, who is an attorney, said he will continue to sue organizations and others until people stop attacking the LGBT community.

“As a lawyer doing this job, that means I’m going to start taking people’s houses and their vehicles and their toys and emptying their bank accounts and garnishing their wages because nobody is going to stop behaving like this until there are real consequences,” he said Dougall Media.

The dispute began in 2020 when Borderland Pride sent a written request to Emo, asking them to properly declare June as Pride Month to “show community support and belonging for LGBTQ2 individuals.”

Borderland Pride director Douglas Judson (pictured), who is a lawyer, said he will continue to sue organizations and others until people stop attacking the LGBT community. He also said that it is a formality these days to ask cities to me proclamations

“As a lawyer doing this job, that means I’m going to start taking people’s houses and their vehicles and their toys and emptying their bank accounts and garnishing their wages because nobody is going to stop behaving like this until there are real consequences,” he said

The organization asked the city to “email us a copy of your proclamation or resolution once it is passed and signed.”

Emo said it received just four requests – two from Borderland Pride – in a 12-month period asking for a declaration or the flag to be displayed.

Emo also has no official pole to hang a flag outside of the one that holds the Canadian flag in front of the municipal office, according to The Post.

Despite that, the May 2020 meeting took place, where McQuaker made his comments, as Tribunal Vice President Karen Dawson wrote in her decision: “I find that this comment was demeaning and disparaging of the LGBTQ2 community of which Borderland Pride is a member and therefore constituted discrimination under the code.’

London, Ontario and Hamilton are also cities that were “sanctioned for refusing to adopt proclamations in support of their local Pride organizations,” according to Borderland Pride.

Former Hamilton mayor Bob Morrow was fined $5,000 in 1995 for not recognizing Gay Pride Week and London was fined $10,000 for not recognizing a Pride Weekend.

Borderland Pride said it will give a third of the $15,000 owed to the Emo Public Library, but only if the establishment hosts a “drag story time event” on a “date of our choosing.”

Borderland Pride has also won other discrimination cases, including $35,000 from a small claims court judgment against a Fore Frances man who wrote that the organization’s drag show was a “pedophile show” on Facebook in August.