Anti-gay purges in Canada

Occurring between the 1950s and the 1990s, the Gay Purges was a mass discrimination and expulsion of Canadian workers in the civil service and armed forces due to their suspected homosexuality.

During the early stages of the Cold War, increased surveillance and interference from the Soviet Union resulted in the Canadian government and military to become increasingly worried about the loyalty of their employees. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was charged with investigating the loyalties, and later the reliability of character, of civil servants and Canadian armed forces members.

The Canadian government determined that homosexuality was a "character defect," and security risk as homosexuals could be possible targets for blackmail by the Soviets. In response to the Canadian government and military's concerns, the RCMP began a purge to investigate and discover homosexuality in areas of the Canadian workforce that were deemed important for national security.

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. As a result, people were often forced into confession or made to spy on their co-workers. Additionally, numerous homosexuals lost their security clearance, and were demoted or terminated.

In October 1992, the federal government acknowledged that homosexual discrimination could not be justified based on Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized in November 2017 for its discriminatory policies and guaranteed a $145 million settlement for affected Canadians.

Background

1940s Gouzenko Affair and Soviet espionage

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. Following the defection, the Canadian government launched the Kellock–Taschereau Royal Commission in 1946. The affair concluded that numerous government workers had betrayed the government. In response to the commission, the government created a new committee within the Privy Council of top civil servants and members of the RCMP. The committee was charged with overseeing security within the civil service, and investigating civil servants who had believably questionable loyalties.

Early investigations and questioning political loyalty

Starting in 1948, several cabinet directives were sent out by the committee asking the RCMP to investigate into the loyalty of government workers. During this time, the RCMP would investigate a civil servant through a file check or field investigation. 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.

Reliability of character in investigations

Prime Minister John Diefenbaker

During the 1950s, the Privy Council changed the criteria needed for civil servants to keep or maintain their security clearance. In addition to having to prove their loyalty, civil servants were required to prove their reliability of character. The cabinet directive introducing these new criteria described a person who was unreliable as someone with “defects in their character which may lead to indiscretion or dishonesty, or may make them the subjects of blackmail.”

hannah add section here that mentions the types of defects

If a person could not meet these criteria, they would no longer be able to have access to classified information. Therefore they would either lose their job, be demoted or not be hired.

Shortly after, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker inquired into these new criteria because he was unsure that a person found to have character weakness should have the same consequences as a person found to be disloyal. His inquiry into the matter would unknowingly set in motion a series of events leading to the Gay Purge.

Homosexuality as a character defect

Once Diefenbaker made his inquiry, the security panel began trying to define what a character defect might be. The focus was immediately placed upon homosexuality as a character defect.

The first study into the matter was written by Paul Frazer, a member of the security panel; in his report, it was explained that homosexuality was, in fact, not a character defect and that, contrary to popular narratives coming out of the United Kingdom and the United-States homosexuality was not a threat.

The security panel rejected Frazer's report and moved forward with characterizing homosexuality as a character flaw. Once the panel rejected Frazer's report, another member of the panel, D.F. Wall released his study, which outlined how homosexuality was a threat and that those suspected of it should not be trusted. The panel then accepted D.F. Wall's report and applied it to the list of character flaws. Homosexuality was different than all the other character flaws as it did not require physical evidence as proof. Anyone could be accused of homosexuality, and if, after an intense series of investigations, a person was found to be homosexual, they would lose their security clearance, causing them to be demoted or lose their job entirely.

more info and start of what we have to add

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.

Workplace discrimination

Anti-gay and anti-lesbian policies remained central to Canadian military policies until October 1992. In 1988, the Department of National Defence announced that armed forces members who acknowledged their sexuality and insisted on staying in the armed forces would not be promoted, lose their security clearance, and had the possibility of being removed from their position.

In 1990, during an appeal from a lesbian former air force lieutenant who was forced to quit, the Canadian Armed Forces argued that loyalties between homosexuals endangered and disregarded Canadian security regulations and national security.

Interrogations

Fruit Machine

The fruit machine was a government funded scientific project in the 1960s that was believed to have the ability to detect homosexuality in the participant. The series of tests were centred around photographic measurements of the eye as the participant would be shown both hetero-and homoerotic photos. The term ‘fruit machine’ was coined by the Royal Canadian Mountain Police who were the most active in the project. The introduction of the controversial project was headed by research from Carleton University professor Robert Wake with support from various officials in federal departments. The fruit machine project had overall encountered numerous difficulties in its efficiency and success rates. The RCMP had failed to gather sufficient numbers of homosexuals as test subjects and found a significant reluctance in heterosexuals volunteering for the project.

Case studies

John Watkins

John Watkins served as the Canadian chargé d’affaires in Moscow from 1948 to 1951, and as the Canadian Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1956. During his tenure in Moscow, Watkins engaged in a homosexual relationship with a Russian male. Soviet secret agents attempted and failed to blackmail Watkins for his liaison. Following Watkins' return to Canada, he was interrogated by the RCMP and resisted their accusations. Although the RCMP reported no evidence that suggested Watkins succumbed to Soviet blackmail, the RCMP continued to interrogate Watkins. In 1964, Watkins had a heart attack during his interrogations. Following the heart attack, the RCMP refused to release the full report dictating the interrogation, and the chief prosecutor of the interrogations refused to testify.

John Wendell Holmes

John Wendell Holmes served as the Canadian Chargé d'Affaires in Moscow from 1947 to 1948, and served as the Assistant Under-Secretary of State for the Department of External Affairs in 1953 until 1960. Holmes was forced to resign from the Department of External Affairs after his sexuality was discovered. Colleagues of Holmes described him as an incredibly capable Canadian diplomat. In recognition of his contributions, Holmes was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1969.

Michelle Douglas, LGBTQS+ activist who launched a successful lawsuit against the Canadian Military for their discrimination of LGBTQS+ people.

End of the Purge

Michelle Douglas

Michelle Douglas served in the Canadian Armed Forces as an officer from 1986 to 1989. 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.

In 1990, Douglas launched a lawsuit against the Department of National Defense. In October 1992, the Canadian military settled the lawsuit for $100,000 plus court costs, and the federal government acknowledged that the discrimination that Douglas faced could not be justified based on Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Changing policy

As a result of Douglas' lawsuit, the federal government ended its discriminatory policy against gays and lesbians, and allowed LGBT members to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces. 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.

need to add info on the changing policy and how it ended

also add info on the discrimination LGBT people still faced even after the government said it would stop

Apology

In 1992, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney stated that the LGBT purges were “one of the great outrages and violations of fundamental human liberty that one would have seen for an extended period of time.” Although Mulroney denounced the acts of the Canadian government, he did not issue a former apology or a inquiry into the purges.

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." Leaders from each official party in the House of Commons also rose to express their regret with regards to the gay purge.

The federal government also guaranteed $145 million in a compensation settlement. $110 million was included for individual compensation and legal fees. An additional $15 million was included for historical "reconciliation and memorialization".

Although many were grateful for the apology, some, including scholars, say it did not go far enough. Many scholars have expressed their frustration with continued the denial of access to information when they try to study the purge in more detail.

LGBTQ2+ National Monument

In 2020, the National Capital Commission announced a monument commemorating the purge. When finished, the memorial will be able to seat up to 2,000 people, and will be located near the headquarters of Library and Archives Canada. In 2022 the design for the monument was announced with its completion expected to be sometime in 2025.

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