“Tolerance”

The Canadian Constitution Foundation will be taking part in a judicial review of an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decision to fine a northern Ontario town and mayor $15,000 for refusing to declare Pride Month.

In November 2024, the tribunal fined Mayor Harold McQuaker and the municipality of Emo, Ont., a total of $15,000 after an adjudicator ruled a comment by the mayor before a vote against the proclamation “proved that the vote was motivated by discrimination.”

“The CCF will argue the tribunal failed to consider Mayor McQuaker’s Charter-protected right to freedom of expression,” the group said in a news release Wednesday.

On the drive into Budapest from the airport, travelers can see billboards erected by the Hungarian political opposition, featuring a photo of Prime Minister Viktor Orban with the slogan “God? Homeland? Pedophilia!” It’s a reference to the recent scandal involving a presidential pardon of a politically connected man who had been convicted of aiding in a pedophilia cover-up. The scandal cost the ruling Fidesz party its top two female politicians: President Katalin Novak and former Justice Minister Judit Varga.

Associating the prime minister, who apparently did not know about the pardon until the media reported it, and who quickly called for resignations of these top allies, is a low blow. But that’s how it goes in Hungary. Fidesz is not above similar tactics. If you expect Magyar politics to be a tea party, you are going to be disappointed.