Toronto • Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized Tuesday to members of the LGBTQ community for actions taken by the government against thousands of workers in the military and public service during the Cold War.
Trudeau said in a speech to Parliament that from the 1950s to the early 1990s, the federal government employed a campaign of oppression against members and suspected members of the LGBTQ communities. The thinking of the day, he said, was that all non-heterosexual Canadians would automatically be at an increased risk of blackmail by Canada’s adversaries.
“This is the devastating story of people who were branded criminals by the government — people who lost their livelihoods, and in some cases, their lives,” Trudeau said.