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A lawyer and social activist, Barbara Hall provided legal aid for gay men arrested in the Operation Soap bathhouse raids and ran for the New Democratic Party in the 1985 Ontario election, losing to Liberal Ian Scott. Later that year, she won a seat on Toronto City Council and in 1994 was elected as Mayor of the pre-amalgamation City of Toronto. During her tenure, she was the first mayor of Toronto to march in the Pride Parade. In 1997, she lost the election to be first Mayor of the new mega-city to Mel Lastman. In 2005, she became head of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.