Reaction is pouring in following an interview with West Lincoln Mayor Dave Bylsma on 610 CKTB earlier today.
On Twitter, Liberal St. Catharines MP Chris Bittle called the Mayor, Niagara Regional Councillor, and National President of the Christian Heritage Party, a 'bigot' for his comments made on the LGBTQ+, black and aboriginal communities.
The conversation with Bylsma started with CKTB's Matt Holmes asking why the township was not flying the Pride Flag, but Bylsma touched on various other issues including the Black Lives Matter movement.
Read more on Bylsma's comments and to hear his entire conversation click here.
The Mayor admitted he did receive an email from Pride Niagara, but it came at a busy time, and he failed to follow up.
Since then a special meeting of council has been scheduled Tuesday morning to discuss flying the Pride flag.
Chair of Pride Niagara, Enzo De Divitis, joined CKTB with reaction, saying at first he thought it was a miscommunication, but he's shocked to hear the Mayor admit he saw the email.
He also says the email was sent to various township officials, not just the Mayor.
He calls the Mayor's comments on the LGBTQ+ community 'jaw dropping' saying the Mayor doesn't understand the meaning behind flying the pride flag.
De Divitis says he felt so 'gutted' that someone who lives so close to him has these views and is in a position of power.
Bylsma says he would like to see just the Canadian and township flags fly in West Lincoln.
"What are anyone who is flying a flag, whether it's Black Lives Matter, or the Pride Flag, still fighting for? Is it necessary or have they won?"
Two West Lincoln Councillors, William Reilly and Jason Trombetta, say the Mayors' views are his own, and they do not represent the entire council.
"He doesn't speak on behalf of me even though he is the face of our municipality, he's not an awful person, he's a nice guy."
Reilly says this is an easy fix, and he doesn't know why a special meeting needs to held to discuss flying the Pride flag.
West Lincoln Councillor Christopher Coady tells CKTB the Mayor refused to call the special meeting, so he along with Councillor Reilly, looked into procedures to circumvent Bylsma's decision.
"It's what we had to do."
Coady says the Mayor's comments in the interview is not the image West Lincoln wants to have, and it's all flabbergasting.
Bylsma also made comments about the aboriginal community.
"Recently I drove past the reservation in Brant. And every entrance to the reservation, there are two armed guards. They have their guns out, they're Indigenous people, and they're protecting their reservation from any outsiders. And I think to myself, 'That's fire.' That's what securing and acknowledging Indigenous rights has produced. This military style opposition when they feel that they have been wronged, they take up arms. The Pride community, those who have been grieved in many ways, they aren't taking up arms like that. I'm saying identity politics has had its run. It's had a fair trial in our societies, it's done good, but its not the final analysis either. And we can see all the tensions and we can draw a thousand lines through our society and none of that's helpful unless we start uniting under the Canadian flag."
Sean Vanderkliss, host of One Dish One Mic on CKTB, says more people need to speak out and Bylsma's views are problematic.
"People are still dying, discrimination still exists. You need to look no further than West Lincoln to see their views on Pride."
"I'm disappointed by what he said, but I'm happy he said it on-air. To me this demonstrates that there are areas we need to work on. As an indigenous man, and as someone who claims to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community, we need to know what can we do to help. Clearly 'Pride' in West Lincoln is an issue."