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Ontario mayor refuses to cave in to demands after town rejected ‘pride’ flag

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Mayor Harold McQuaker of Emo, Ontario

From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

Emo, Ontario mayor Harold McQuaker said he will ‘absolutely not’ pay a fine or attend re-education classes, emphasizing that ‘I will not be extorted.’

Last month, the Ontario Human Rights Commission ordered the township of Emo to pay the LGBT activist group Borderland Pride $10,000 for voting in 2020 not to fly a “Pride” flag. Mayor Harold McQuaker was ordered to personally pay $5,000 — and take a re-education course titled “Human Rights 101” to boot. We covered both the original story as well as a follow-up, detailing Borderland Pride’s threats and demands.

There is a new development in the case: Mayor Harold McQuaker is flatly refusing to do what is being demanded of him. Asked by the Toronto Sun if he will pay the fine or attending re-education classes, the 77-year-old McQuaker was blunt. “Absolutely not,” he replied. “I will not be extorted.” He also stated that he will not host Drag Queen Story Hour at the local library, either — one of the demands laid out in an open letter published by Borderland Pride.

Emo Township is a small town of just over 1,200 people located 380 kilometers west of Thunder Bay. The township now has to decide whether to pay the LGBT activist group as demanded by the Ontario Human Rights Commission or refuse to do so. McQuaker has made up his mind. “I utterly refuse to pay the $5,000 because that’s extortion,” he stated. “I have a lot of respect for our four councillors. We have a special meeting of council, and they will decide that and what to do next, either pay the fine or appeal it.”

McQuaker grew up in the area and owned a construction company there for 50 years, and he cannot be pushed around easily. “I will not pay the $5,000 I have been fined and will not take the training,” he emphasized to the Sun. “The council will decide on the fine levied to it. I did not do anything wrong … if anybody needs training it’s the LGBTQ2+ to quit pushing their weight around and making demand that people can’t live with.”

Ironically, the Emo town hall doesn’t even have a flagpole — but that didn’t matter to Borderland Pride, which has, in addition to other demands, stated that it expects a written apology as well as “diversity and inclusion training for council, and a commitment to adopt Pride proclamations in the future without stripping out their 2SLGBTQIA+-affirming language.” Borderland Pride insisted that despite the lack of flagpole the LGBT flag could have been displayed somewhere else, “such as in a window or on a counter in the municipal office.”

McQuaker emphasized that he “doesn’t hate anyone” and that he will not tolerate the accusations being leveled at him by Borderland Pride. “I am a husband to my wife for 51 years, father of two, a grandfather of seven and a great grandfather of one,” he said. “I consider myself a very reasonable person and a good leader for our community and I would have a lot of support if there was an election.”

In response, Doug Judson of Borderland Pride suggested that the mayor should be happy to learn from the LGBT group because his role:

(A)ctually requires that the mayor ‘participate in and foster activities that enhance the economic, social and environmental well-being of the municipality and its residents.’ Part of showing this kind of community leadership is to set the tone for civil debate and to demonstrate a willingness to learn and adapt one’s perspective on issues that, for various reasons, they may have more limited understanding of. It seems obvious enough that the mayor does not have many ties to the queer community. We hope that the training that was ordered by the tribunal will assist him in his leadership role moving forward.

In short, Judson and his LGBT activist buddies hope that forcing the 77-year-old mayor of a small town to take re-education classes will create “ties to the queer community” and that he will be a good boy from now on and do what they demand the first time. Harold McQuaker isn’t having any of it — and we need more like him. Godspeed to the mayor — I hope that the council follows suit.

Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in the National PostNational ReviewFirst Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, the Jewish Independent, the Hamilton SpectatorReformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.

His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

He is the author of The Culture WarSeeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of AbortionPatriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life MovementPrairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide with Blaise Alleyne.

Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

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International

Watch your a** Petro. Trump threatens Colombian President

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President Trump delivered one of his bluntest warnings yet to Colombian President Gustavo Petro during a Saturday press conference, brushing aside Petro’s claim that he had no concerns about his own safety following the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. Asked directly about Petro’s remarks, Trump pointed to Colombia’s role in the global cocaine trade and made clear he was not backing off earlier threats. Petro, Trump said, presides over cocaine production facilities whose product is being funneled into the United States, adding that the Colombian leader “does have to watch his a**.”

The exchange revived tensions that have been simmering since December, when Trump publicly warned Petro to shut down multiple major cocaine labs inside Colombia. At the time, Trump said U.S. authorities had precise intelligence on their locations and openly labeled Petro a “troublemaker,” cautioning him to “watch it.” Since returning to office, Trump has taken a far more confrontational posture toward leftist leaders in the hemisphere, and Petro — a self-described Marxist and former guerrilla — has repeatedly found himself in Washington’s crosshairs.

Petro’s clashes with the United States extend well beyond rhetoric. He was previously sanctioned by the Treasury Department and had his U.S. visa revoked after urging American service members to defy Trump’s orders and join what he described as a multinational force to “free Palestine.” He has also triggered diplomatic flare-ups over deportation flights, branded Trump an “obstacle to democracy,” and drew widespread condemnation last October after suggesting humanity should “get rid of Trump,” punctuating the comment with a finger snap during a televised interview.

Those remarks now hang over a far more consequential moment in U.S.–Latin American relations. Trump’s comments came in the immediate aftermath of the high-risk operation that resulted in Maduro’s capture and removal from Venezuela — a move the president hailed as a “brilliant operation.” Carried out under the banner of Operation Absolute Resolve, the joint military and law enforcement mission ended with Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, flown to the United States without the loss of American personnel or equipment. The takedown marked the most aggressive assertion of U.S. power in the region in decades, with administration officials openly framing it as a modern enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine — rechristened by Trump as the “Donroe Doctrine.”

Maduro’s legal exposure is extensive. Indicted in 2020, the longtime socialist ruler has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of leading the Cartel de los Soles, a transnational cocaine trafficking network. According to the indictment unsealed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Maduro’s regime worked hand-in-glove with Colombian insurgent groups including the FARC and ELN, as well as Mexican cartels such as Sinaloa and Los Zetas, to move enormous quantities of cocaine into the United States. He and Flores now face charges ranging from narco-terrorism and cocaine importation conspiracy to weapons offenses involving machine guns and destructive devices.

Petro has tried, cautiously, to put distance between himself and the fallen Venezuelan dictator. In late 2025, he referred to Maduro as a dictator for the first time, but stopped short of acknowledging the narco-trafficking allegations that have followed Caracas for years. Even after Maduro’s arrest, Petro has continued to dismiss U.S. accusations as a manufactured “narrative,” despite a trail of indictments and evidence stretching back more than half a decade.

For Trump, the message Saturday was unmistakable. The Maduro operation was not a one-off, and public defiance from regional leaders will be met with pressure, exposure, and consequences. Petro may insist he has nothing to worry about — but Trump made clear he disagrees, and he is no longer content to issue quiet warnings.

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Entertainment

Nearly half of Netflix kids shows push LGBTQ content, watchdog warns

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Nearly a quarter of TV-Y7-rated shows crossed into what it labeled explicit territory, including direct statements about sexual orientation or gender identity and depictions of related behavior. The group argued that this goes well beyond background representation and enters the realm of ideological messaging directed at children who are still years away from adolescence.

A new year-end analysis is raising fresh questions about what major streaming platforms are serving to young audiences, and whether parents are being given an honest picture of that content. According to a report released by Concerned Women for America, more than four in ten children’s programs labeled as suitable for general audiences on Netflix now include LGBTQ-themed material, despite ratings that suggest the shows are appropriate for very young viewers. The group’s review of 2025 programming found that 41 percent of Netflix shows rated TV-G contained what it described as overt gay or transgender content. Even in the TV-Y category, which is meant for children up to age seven, 21 percent of programs included similar material. For slightly older children, the share jumped sharply, with 41 percent of TV-Y7 programs containing LGBTQ themes. Taken together, CWA concluded that roughly one-third of all Netflix programming across the three primary child-rated categories — TV-G, TV-Y, and TV-Y7 — now includes such content.

Beyond simple presence, the report also attempted to measure intensity. Programs were categorized on a scale ranging from “meta” references and implied messaging to “queer-coded” characters and fully explicit content. CWA found that nearly a quarter of TV-Y7-rated shows crossed into what it labeled explicit territory, including direct statements about sexual orientation or gender identity and depictions of related behavior. The group argued that this goes well beyond background representation and enters the realm of ideological messaging directed at children who are still years away from adolescence.

The report also points to a noticeable pattern in reboots and long-running franchises. According to CWA, revived or extended versions of familiar children’s shows often introduce LGBTQ characters or storylines that were absent from the originals. Titles cited include The Magic School Bus, Power Rangers, The Baby-Sitter’s Club, She-Ra, and The Fairly OddParents. CWA said this trend suggests a deliberate choice by creators to reshape legacy brands that parents may trust based on earlier iterations.

To place the shift in a broader cultural context, the report traces the normalization of LGBTQ representation in television back several decades. When Ellen DeGeneres’ character came out on the sitcom Ellen in 1997, it was widely viewed as a watershed moment in entertainment. What once sparked national debate, the group notes, has since become routine — driven in part by sustained pressure from advocacy organizations such as GLAAD, which has tracked and promoted increased representation through its annual “Where We Are on TV” reports. GLAAD’s most recent assessment claimed another year-over-year increase in LGBTQ characters across television.

CWA argues that the implications are different when that momentum is applied to children’s programming. In its view, the growing volume of LGBTQ content aimed at young audiences — coupled with the unapologetic defense of those choices by showrunners and studios — reflects a belief within the industry that children’s entertainment should actively shape cultural attitudes rather than simply entertain. For parents relying on ratings systems to make informed decisions, the group warns, the labels no longer tell the full story.

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