The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has ordered the small rural Canadian township of Emo to pay damages after failing to proclaim Pride Month as instructed back in 2020.

Borderland Pride had tasked Emo with the job of declaring June as Pride Month and ordered municipal authorities to fly an “LGBTQ2 rainbow flag for a week of your choosing” even though they did not have an official flagpole, according to a report by CBC nEWS

Breitbart reports: Borderland Pride also asked Emo to “email us a copy of your proclamation or resolution once adopted and signed.”

The Emo township refused. That rejection sparked a years-long arbitration process in which the tribunal ruled against the township, the National Post reports.

The tribunal ruled Borderland Pride will be awarded $15,000, with $10,000 coming from the township itself and the other $5,000 coming from Emo mayor Harold McQuaker.

McQuaker and Emo’s chief administrative officer were also ordered to complete an online course known as “Human Rights 101” and “provide proof of completion … to Borderland Pride within 30 days” as recompense for their disobedience.

The Post report notes the course being undertaken as punishment is offered by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Their latest educational edition opens with an animated video telling participants the Human Rights Code “is not meant to punish.