FORT FRANCES – It has been a month since Borderland Pride issued a survey to Emo’s municipal candidates to gauge their views on the municipality’s past legal dispute with Borderland Pride, and to gather viewpoints on 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion within the community going forward.
According to Borderland Pride, not a single candidate has yet responded.
The organization didn’t submit the survey to incumbent candidates, arguing that their views are already widely known. However, they did issue the survey to candidates Geoffrey Pearce, Lisa Teeple, Gerald Wieringa, Phil Whatley, Frank Szeder Jr., and Russ Fortier.
The survey had an attached deadline of Oct. 7, giving each candidate a little less than a month to complete it and send it back to Borderland Pride for review.
The survey included questions like: “If you had been on council in the current term, would you have voted with the majority in May 2020 to refuse to recognize Pride Month in Emo?” and “If elected, what will you do to make your municipality a more inclusive and safe space for LGBTQ2 people and to repair the harm that was caused by your council in 2020?”
In a release, Borderland Pride says it assumes because tje survey received no response, “none of these candidates were willing to make comments which might be critical of the current council towards Pride and LGBTQ2 inclusion”
The organization also included past social media posts made by Frank Szeder and Phil Whatley about Borderland Pride in 2020 that can be interrupted as anti-2SLGBTQ+ sentiment.
“What the f--- is wrong with you,” Szeder’s social media post reads. “Do what you want in your own home is your choice. Keep your crap at your own homes and do not share your immoral ideas and beliefs where it is not wanted.”
A post about pride by Phil Whatley read, “Anyone who has attempted to train a child, or a student, or an animal even is aware that to disapprove of one’s behavior is not to hate. It is hope and vision for something which could be. To endorse behaviour of which one actually disapproves is hypocrisy. To choose not to care is unloving, or perhaps hate. To demand that others endorse behaviors of which they disapprove is bullying.”
Borderland Pride expressed concern over the lack of candidates willing to speak on 2SLBGTQ+ inclusion within the community.
“It is disappointing that no one aspiring for leadership in Emo wishes to address homophobia in the community and on its council," the group said. "Their silence reflects a grave misunderstanding of their role in elected office. It also demonstrates their own willingness to continue wasting taxpayer dollars to fight losing legal battles.”
So far, the Municipality of Emo has spent nearly $40,000 in legal fees fighting what Borderland Pride calls a breach of Ontario’s Human Rights Code when members of the council, including Mayor Harold McQuaker and Couns. Harrold Boven and Warren Toles, refused to make a declaration of Pride Month acknowledging LGBTQ2 inclusion in the municipality in 2020.
Borderland Pride expressed confidence that, if Emo's next council brings a similar approach, the Human Right Tribunal of Ontario will continue to support the legal claims.
“We have stated numerous times, in every single case we have seen where a municipality has refused a request for a Pride resolution or proclamation, the complainant has been successful at the Human Rights Tribunal. Likewise, we expect to be successful in this proceeding,” the group stated.
