Anti-gay purges in Canada
[2] In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the RCMP was charged with investigating the loyalties, and later the reliability of character, of civil servants and Canadian armed forces members.
[3] The purge was characterized by the intensity of its investigations, with security personnel often using extreme questioning tactics and pseudo-scientific devices, such as the fruit machine.
[1] In October 1992, the federal government acknowledged that LGBTQ discrimination could not be justified based on Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
[1] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized in November 2017 for the country's past discriminatory policies and guaranteed a $145 million settlement for affected Canadians.
[4][5] Questions about loyalty within the civil service began to preoccupy the Canadian government in 1945 following Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko's defection.
The details of the defection revealed that Soviet Union had a large spy network in Canada that compromised the Canadian civil service, military and National Research Council.
In response to the commission, the government created a new committee within the Privy Council of top civil servants and members of the RCMP.
[1] A person would be flagged for investigation if officials suspected them of holding "subversive political associations," for example, if a worker was thought to have connections to communist or fascist organizations.
'"[8] Canadian officials followed in the footsteps of the US in their tightening of national security while justifying their actions as one that brings closer the relationship between Canada's intelligence agencies and that of their allies.
Allied countries will not entrust Canadian officials and political leaders with secret information unless Canada has in place effective structures and procedures for detecting and preventing foreign espionage.
"[8] The RCMP began a purge to investigate and discover homosexuality in areas of the Canadian workforce that were deemed important for national security.
[1] Homosexuality eventually became the leading cause for internal investigations, with the civil service seeing so many accusations that the RCMP began struggling to keep up with them.
[3] During the cold war, the RCMP’s Directorate of Security and Intelligence had a subdivision called “Character Weakness” which had the task of rooting out homosexual men and women working for the government.
[12] RCMP officers under cover would go gather in bars frequented by gay patronage and take photos of people while hiding their camera behind a newspaper.
Dr. Frank Wake and Mr. Don Wall of the Privy Council Office (PCO) visited the United States in 1961-62 in order to learn from the experience of the FBI, CIA and the U.S National Security Agency (NSA) in dealing with their so-called 'homosexual problem.'
The RCMP had failed to gather sufficient numbers of homosexuals as test subjects and found a significant reluctance in heterosexuals volunteering for the project.
Despite having an exceptional record in the armed forces, Douglas was demoted in 1988 and honorably discharged from the military in 1989 due to her sexual orientation.
[1] As a result of Douglas' lawsuit, the federal government ended its discriminatory policy against gays and lesbians, and allowed LGBTQ members to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces.
[1] Following the conclusion of the lawsuit, the Department of National Defence announced that homosexual applicants and members would be treated equally with their heterosexuals counterparts.
[28] On November 28, 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood up in the House of Commons and gave an official apology for the Gay Purge.
In his statement, he referred to the purge as a "witch hunt" and talked about how its victims "lost their dignity and their careers, and had their dreams, and indeed their lives shattered.
