LGBTQ advocates want military, RCMP, public service to take part in apology
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should not be the only one to say sorry for state-sanctioned discrimination against LGBTQ people, say advocates who have long demanded the federal government apologize for years of persecution.
Lynne Gouliquer, a military veteran who has researched the history of how LGBTQ people were hounded out of their jobs in the military and the federal government, said she wants to see the heads of the institutions responsible take part in the Nov. 28 apology in the House of Commons.
That should include Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, acting RCMP commissioner Daniel Dubeau, the chief of the defence staff and the clerk of the Privy Council, said Gouliquer, because it would render the apology more meaningful to those who were directly affected.
“These are all the organizations that perpetrated past discrimination against the LGBTQ community,” said Gouliquer, an assistant professor of sociology at Laurentian University in Sudbury.