London Mayor Matt Brown is set to right a wrong.
Twenty years after the Ontario Human Rights Commission determined that the city of London and former Mayor Dianne Haskett discriminated against the Homophile Association of London, Ontario (HALO), the city is ready to apologize.
In an email sent out Thursday morning, the mayor’s office said Brown will apologize to the LGBTQ2 community Friday, Jan. 12, at 11 a.m. on the steps in front of city hall.
“After discussion with our LGBTQ2 community and former city councillors we feel it is time to issue an apology,” the email says.
The issue dates back to 1995 when Haskett refused to acknowledge the London Pride Festival or issue a Gay Pride proclamation. London city council voted 13-5 against issuing the proclamation, with Haskett abstaining.
The president of HALO at the time, Richard Hudler, filed an official complaint with the commission. A three-day hearing was held in 1997 at which time a tribunal determined Haskett and the city discriminated against HALO in the provision of a municipal service. Both were fined $5,000.
“I believe it is time to recognize the harmful and hurtful actions of the past, that’s why it’s important for me to apologize, so we can move forward together,” Brown said in a statement. “LGBT+ rights are human rights and our history as a community shows we failed to acknowledge that. As Mayor, I believe that London is a city where absolutely everyone should feel welcome, included and respected.”
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Haskett, a devout Christian, protested the decision and took a three-week leave of absence during her re-election campaign. Haskett left the city and stayed at a property she owned in Port Stanley. Haskett would go on to easily win re-election in 1997, taking 61 per cent of the vote.
The former mayor also took out a paid advertisement in the London Free Press to argue the tribunal’s decision was wrong and undermined the freedoms guaranteed by the Canadian Constitution.
1995 was also the year Ontario became the first province in Canada to allow same-sex couples to adopt.
Haskett would later make a failed attempt to return to politics in London, running in a 2006 federal byelection after former MP Joe Fontana resigned to run for mayor. Haskett, who ran for the Conservatives, came in third behind Glen Pearson, who ran for the Liberals. Green Party leader Elizabeth May came in second.
Fontana would lose the 2006 municipal election but defeated former mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best in 2010 and would become the first mayor in London to walk in the Pride parade. While DeCicco-Best acknowledged the pride festival, she never participated in it.
Brown has walked in the Pride parade as both a councillor and mayor.
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