{"id":77962,"date":"2017-05-18T05:36:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T05:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/ottawa-to-formally-apologize-to-lgbt-community-for-past-wrongs.html"},"modified":"2017-05-18T05:36:31","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T05:36:31","slug":"ottawa-to-formally-apologize-to-lgbt-community-for-past-wrongs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/ottawa-to-formally-apologize-to-lgbt-community-for-past-wrongs.html","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa to formally apologize to LGBT community for past wrongs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will apologize to members of the LGBT community for actions the government took against thousands of workers in the Canadian military and public service in the Cold War era, a top gay MP said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The apology will be made before the end of the year, Alberta Liberal MP Randy\u00a0Boissonnault\u00a0told reporters, and will address a number of longstanding grievances.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to work closely with members of all facets from the LGBTQ community to make sure that our apology is comprehensive and that it takes into account a broad\u00a0range of the stories and the lived experience of Canadians,” said Boissonnault, who also serves as Trudeau’s\u00a0LGBTQ2 advisor.<\/p>\n

From the 1950s to the 1990s, thousands of federal workers were fired because of their sexuality as part of a “national security” purge.<\/p>\n

LGBT people were thought of being particularly vulnerable to blackmail and intimidation by Soviet spies and other foreign enemies. The Canadian government went so far as to develop a homosexuality test\u00a0\u2014 a so-called “fruit machine”<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 which measured arousal to pornography to help weed out all suspected gay people.<\/p>\n

Some\u00a0gay members of the Canadian Armed Forces were also discharged for “psychopathic personality with abnormal sexuality.”<\/p>\n

\n ‘It\u00a0feels like the government is\u00a0just\u00a0using these issues as a bit of a PR stunt\u00a0and\u00a0they’re really not tackling things substantively.’<\/span>
\n – Michael\u00a0Motala,\u00a0Egale\u00a0report co-author<\/cite>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By the 1960s, the RCMP had a database of 9,000 “expected” lesbians and gay men working across the federal government.<\/p>\n

Sanctions for their sexuality included dismissal, demotion, denial of opportunities for promotion, being forced to live a double-life, and other forms of systemic discrimination, according to a report recently compiled by Egale Canada, an advocacy group that fights for the rights of LGBT Canadians.<\/p>\n

‘PR stunt’<\/h2>\n

The report “The Just Society Report: Gross Indecency,” released last June on the same day as the Orlando gay club massacre,\u00a0recommended an apology \u2014 like was done in the past for the Chinese head tax and for Indian residential schools \u2014 as the\u00a0first step towards reconciliation.<\/p>\n

An apology would then be followed by a mediated settlement led by retired Supreme Court Justice\u00a0Frank Iacobucci and the enactment of a “government expungement act” that would offer pardons to people charged under previous criminal code provisions, the report suggested.<\/p>\n

Michael Motala, one of the authors of the Egale\u00a0report \u2014\u00a0commissioned by the federal Justice department\u00a0\u2014\u00a0said he’s encouraged by the announcement today but is dismayed at just how long the process has been to date.<\/p>\n

\"Trudeau<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waves a flag as he takes part in the annual Pride Parade in Toronto on Sunday, July 3, 2016. (Nathan Denette\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

“We had hoped for at least an\u00a0apology during Toronto pride [last year] and the prime minister flatly ignored\u00a0that request without any acknowledgment of the work that we had done and marched in the parade anyway,” Motala said in an interview with CBC News. “It’s a shame that the government has been so mum on providing details.”<\/p>\n

Motala\u00a0recently met with\u00a0Boissonnault,\u00a0but he seemed to have few answers to\u00a0pressing questions. “He was really back\u00a0pedaling. It seemed like he had no authority to speak because he’s not at the ministerial level. He can’t push buttons and make things happen.\u00a0An\u00a0apology\u00a0shouldn’t have taken a year, it’s a couple of lines.<\/p>\n

“It\u00a0feels like the government is\u00a0just\u00a0using these issues as a bit of a PR stunt\u00a0and\u00a0they’re really not tackling things substantively.”<\/p>\n

Apology, then pardons<\/h2>\n

Boissonnault said the government will first apologize and then\u00a0“work on” pardons and expungements “for Canadians who were charged and who still have on their records criminal offences that are, you know, no longer on the books.”<\/p>\n

NDP MP Randall Garrison said groups have waited far too long for an apology. “We’re very disappointed that all we get is a repeat of the promise,” he said, adding it isn’t just about cutting cheques to people who were wronged.<\/p>\n

The federal government will formally apologize to Canadians who were discriminated against because of their sexuality<\/strong>5:19<\/p>\n

“The focus of most people in the community is an apology that’s meaningful, a recognition that people’s careers were harmed, in particular those in the military who want their service records amended to say their service was honourable.”<\/p>\n