Excerpt from the OH&S Canada magazine (November 2016)
A group of LGBTQ individuals has launched a class-action lawsuit against the federal government, claiming decades’ worth of discrimination and persecution during their past employment as civil servants or military personnel. Many of them allegedly lost their jobs in a long-time purge of homosexual employees dating back to the 1950s.
Toronto lawyer R. Douglas, a partner with Cambridge LLP, announced the suit in Ottawa on November 01, 2016. Headed by lead plaintiff Todd Ross, the group is seeking $600,000,000 from the Justin Trudeau government. Ross, a former sailor, alleges he was blackmailed over his sexual orientation in 1990.
“He had just turned 21,” Elliott says, “and he was told he would be pushing a broom in some remote armed forces base for the rest of his life as a private for life, or he could take an honourable discharge and get out.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Monique Goyette, a section head within the Canadian Forces’ directive for human rights and diversity, notes that the military kept an administrative order on homosexuals in effect until 1986. In 1992, the military’s anti-gay policy was ruled to be a violation of the Charter of Rights.
“Since that time, homosexuals have served openly in the Canadian Armed Forces,” Lt.-Col. Goyette says. “We have had members who were homosexuals rise to senior ranks.”
But Elliott maintains that homophobia is still a problem in the Canadian military and that discrimination and persecution in federal workplaces have taken many forms over the years. He considers the continued discrimination to be a legacy of the Cold War era, when LGBTQ people were considered unreliable, morally corrupt or apt to prey on colleagues.
“It has left a legacy of a poisoned work environment to this day in some sectors in the federal civil service,” he says.
Lt.-Col. Goyette counters that the culture in the military has changed a lot since 1990s. “Anybody that can contribute to the operational effectiveness of the Canadian Armed Forces is welcome,” Lt.-Col. Goyette affirms. “We do not discriminate.”
My opinion
There has been many a federal entity, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), as example, where rampant discrimination and harassment have been the norm. To route out and remove this type of behaviour takes a long period of time. Some remnants go underground and take an even longer period of time to remove.
The best way to deal with this type of discrimination is to ensure that senior leadership is fully on board with the new policies and become the driving force in its implementation.
Everything starts at the top!
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Daniel L. Beal
CHSEP – Advanced Level
CEO & Senior Trainer
HRS Group Inc.