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Canada will apologize for persecution
August 14, 2016 - 9:22pm
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Justin Trudeau to apologize for historic persecution of gay Canadians
This is the type of stuff he is good at. A photo-op with a progressive bent. It will cost nothing and have no effect. I hope it is not as two faced as his claiming he was going to respect the UN Declaration of Aboriginal Rights. A good place to show his sincerity would be to repeal the section of the Criminal Code that applies to sex between gay teenagers.
Svend Robinson:
For the countless Canadians humiliated by anti-gay policies, healing can finally begin
Yup. There are lots of reasons to believe this a platitude, and certainly there will be broken promises. But those of us who weren't on the receiving end don't understand what it means to some people to simply have it spoken.
My jaw drops when I hear people who accept Stephen Harper's apology to residential school survivors as significant, despite his record, and the fact it was no real acceptance of responsibility. But the fact remains it does have deep significance for some people, if only because it is on the public record.
So in that, I have to respect it.
I take this one as something which has similar meaning , and is a step in the right direction that however small, and however much a marketing ploy
...and however much there are going to be some in that community saying this is very little, much too late. And in that, they are also quite right, and quite justified.
The apology is just a ritual - but if they do act on the first recommendation mentioned in the Globe article (expunging criminal records) I will be marginally impressed - FWIW, I much prefer they use the term "expunge" rather than "pardon" - the latter seems to imply that those being "pardoned" are being "forgiven" for something they did that was wrong. If anyone is in need of forgiveness, it is those who legislated, policed and enforced the laws.
Yes!
And here's the full text of Egale's "Just Society Report". I haven't read this 209-page document yet, but I surely will. And maybe it will be a candidate for the babble book club - time for some really important non-fiction from Canada's sordid history.
ETA: And when they finally harmonize the age of consent to stop discriminating against LGBTQ+ teens, the NDP will not only owe Bill Siksay a huge apology (which they already owe him), but will need to seriously self-interrogate as to how and why they whipped their caucus to support this vicious Harperite measure.
This would be great and would be important both symbolically and, to a lot of LGBT+ people, in substance. I'll be happy if this unconfirmed Globe and Mail report turns out to be true - at the moment it's lots of praise for the Trudeau gov't, but that gov't has not confirmed that it will in fact apologize as far as I can tell from the media reports.
Props to EGALE for the report though, it's clearly having an impact!
I'll believe it when I see it also, swallow - especially the rest of the recommendations which bagkitty noted upthread.
But if it doesn't happen, it would be one major embarrassment for Egale:
Egale Applauds Prime Minister Trudeau’s Announcement of Apology to Persecuted Gay Canadians
Yet their news release doesn't really specify when, where, and how Trudeau "declared his intention" to apologize (let alone implement the rest of the report). So time for pressure, I guess.
Have the NDP, BQ, Greens reacted to this, just out of curiosity?
I've heard nothing. I suspect that EGALE is trying to make the Globe report a fait accompli - it would be embarrassing for the Trudeau government not to apologize now. And the community affected is a prime Liberal voting block (eg the finance minister would now be elected without solid support from Toronto's gay village).
Crossed my mind - I'm sure you're right!
As long as all the parties are different shades of neoliberal, it's smart politics to use that kind of pressure to make advances for the community.
Looks like the UK will be issuing retroactive pardon for "Gross Indecency" offences. Of course it is not advisable to actually hold ones breath waiting for it to happen. Hypoxia is not a laughing matter.
Wow. I had no idea the Gross Indecency law was such a recent invention. Surprising when you consider those laws were done away with in Turkey in 1858.
From reading the description it seems like Labouchere promoted the bill specifically to go after Oscar Wilde.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labouchere_Amendment
Funny, I read a book not too long ago (Into the Silence by Wade Davis, which I recommend not only for its account of the Everest expeditions, the horrors of the war, and colonialism of the time) in which it was pointed out that everyone in the early 20th century just assumed that upper class boys were all having sex with each other at school, because upper class men and women never interacted at all until they got married.
So for all the outrage, those laws were primarily for keeping people in line, and targetting those who they wanted to target.