Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will apologize on behalf of all Canadians to anyone imprisoned, terminated from employment or otherwise persecuted in Canada in the past because of their sexuality, according to The Globe and Mail Aug. 11.
Government sources speaking with The Globe and Mail say Trudeau could issue the statement as early as this fall.
The apology is a part of a series of reforms submitted to the Canadian government by the LGBT rights organization Egale.
“This is a long-awaited moment and a very emotional moment, to be honest,” Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale, said. “For the government to recognize the damage that it caused, the harm that it caused, to thousands and thousands of Canadians is a historic moment for our communities.”
The Just Society, which Egale has named the list of recommendations, include:
- Apologizing to people who were convicted of gross indecency for committing homosexual acts in the years before 1969, when same-sex acts between consensual adults were decriminalized. Those convictions will be pardoned, expunged or in some other fashion stricken from the records of those convicted.
- Apologizing to those who were dismissed from the public service, discharged from the military or otherwise discriminated against in government work because they were homosexual. It was only in the 1990s that the federal government ceased efforts to identify and expel homosexuals in the military.
- Eliminating the difference in the age of consent for sexual acts. The current age of consent is 16, but it is 18 for anal intercourse, which discriminates against and stigmatizes young homosexuals.
- Examining whether and how to compensate those who suffered past discrimination because of who they were or whom they loved. This could involve individual compensation and/or funding for programs or services.
- Requiring all police officers or others who work in the justice system to receive human-rights training, with an emphasis on the historic wrong of treating members of sexual minorities as criminals and on the current bias that all too often still exists.
- Providing similar training to Customs officials, who still are more likely to ban homosexual materials from crossing the border, while permitting their heterosexual equivalents.
- Implementing procedures to protect the dignity of transgender or intersex persons in prisons or jails.
- Eliminating laws, such as keeping a bawdy house, that can be used to criminally charge those who visit a bathhouse or who practice group sex.
Trudeau’s office offered no comment on whether the Prime Minister would be releasing an apology this fall, but Cameron Ahmad, press secretary to Trudeau, issued the following statement: “We have committed to working with Egale and other groups on an ongoing basis to bring an end to discrimination and further guarantee equality for all citizens. We are currently carefully reviewing the recommendations in their report, and will have more to say in the near future.”
