A federal Court Challenges Program has cost $24.9 million since cabinet revived subsidies for Charter challenges in 2017, says a Department of Canadian Heritage report. The department would not say which lawsuits were subsidized or why: “No one is able to tell me who got the money.”
Most Black Canadians were born abroad with a majority arriving here after 1971, new Statistics Canada data show. The figures contradict federal claims a legacy of Canadian “slavery and exploitation” is to blame for income disparities: “Slavery and exploitation were part of Canadian society for over 200 years.”
In the storm,
The grandmother worried about her people.
The road crew worried about the storm.
The explorers worried about the beer.
In the town,
The residents worried about the supplies.
The Mounties worried about the unknown.
The explorers worried about the wind.
On the Road,
The explorers worried about the daylight.
The grandmother worried about her children.
The Mountains worried about neither.
By W.N. Branson
In 1997, returning home one evening from a cruise on the St. Lawrence River, criminologist Patrice Corriveau witnessed an assault. Five men were tormenting a sixth.
“A gang of arrogant roughnecks, bursting with testosterone, decided to taunt him; they deem his attire too effeminate and conclude he must be a ‘faggot,’ a ‘queer,’” writes Corriveau. “With unbelievable violence, these brave souls shove the young man around as a crowd watches without reacting or intervening in any way.”
Upset by what he’d seen, Professor Corriveau of the University of Ottawa devoted his doctoral studies to the persecution of gays in French culture, typically men “used as scapegoats by a society disturbed by sexuality,” he writes. The result, La Répression des Homosexuels au Québec et en France, is adapted to English by UBC Press.
Sodomy was punishable by death in Canada until 1869 and decriminalized a century later. Between these two legal milestones Corriveau chronicles the repression of gays not merely for what they did, but for who they were.
Quebec was the first province to outlaw discrimination over sexual orientation in 1977. It followed centuries of arrests of homosexuals as deviant or depraved, culminating in ever-increasing convictions past the Victorian era.
“Homoerotic acts were rarely criminalized in New France,” writes Corriveau; he identifies only five indictments in the 17th century, including a soldier convicted of “unnatural acts” in 1648 and given a suspended death sentence.
earliest Criminal Code in 1892 made sodomy punishable by life imprisonment. The maximum for incest was 14 years. The penalty remained in force until 1954. Yet cases were rare until postwar years. Between 1931 and 1954 the number of sodomy convictions in Quebec grew tenfold, to 212 a year.
What happened? “As long as the image of the homosexual remained that of effeminacy, which was easily identifiable, society had nothing to fear,” writes Corriveau. “With the masculinization of gay culture, homosexuals became difficult to distinguish; in fact, a good number of homosexuals sought to act virile in order to lose themselves in the crowd. Their invisibility made them more frightening.”
Judging Homosexuals has no happy ending. True, restrictive laws were repealed and same-sex unions were legalized. Yet Corriveau remains “haunted,” he writes. In the most liberal province in Canada, decades after discrimination was outlawed, he saw a man beaten before a watchful crowd for the crime of dressing as he pleased.
By Holly Doan
Judging Homosexuals: A History of Gay Persecution in Quebec and France by Patrice Corriveau; UBC Press; 244 pages; ISBN 978-077-4817-219; $29.95
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau improperly disclosed classified information and ignored suspicious activities by Chinese agents in Canada because it was to the advantage of the Liberal Party, opposition lawyers yesterday told the Commission on Foreign Interference. The comments came on the last day of hearings: “Party before country.”
Liberal MPs have saved Catherine McKenna from a summons for questioning over forestry management at Jasper National Park. The Commons environment committee was told residents for years warned then-Environment Minister McKenna and Park managers that Jasper was a “tinder box” of dead pine following a beetle infestation: “McKenna has refused to testify.”
Cabinet will not meet a Bloc Québécois ultimatum to pass two bills into law by Tuesday or risk collapse of the 44th Parliament. Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet had set a deadline of 11:59 pm Eastern on October 29: “There will be plenty of non-confidence votes between now and Christmas.”
New quotas lower the number of foreigners to be allowed in Canada next year by 218,000 landed immigrants, migrant workers and foreign students, about 11 percent from 2023 levels, figures show. It follows record-high quotas the Department of Immigration blamed for fueling a “housing crisis.”
The Senate is close to passing a private Liberal bill proclaiming April as Arab Heritage Month. “We are open to the world,” said MP David McGuinty (Ottawa South), sponsor of the bill: “How can we use this bill to heal divisions and reduce bigotry?”
ArriveCan managers yesterday abruptly announced they’d discovered thousands of “deleted” emails involving business with contractors now under RCMP investigation. It followed protests from MPs after the Canada Border Services Agency claimed evidence was mysteriously destroyed: “We trust this clarifies any potential misinterpretation.”
Critics of Parks Canada have become “conspiracy addled,” says a Liberal-appointed senator. Paula Simons (Alta.) told a committee hearing she disapproved of “back seat forest fighters” who questioned Parks Canada forest management practices prior to a disastrous blaze at Jasper National Park: “What do you want people to know?”
Farm free traders last evening told senators to defeat a Bloc Québecois bill on dairy quotas though it could topple the 44th Parliament. “Trade is not a political game,” Nathan Phinney, president of the Canadian Cattle Association, testified at the Commons foreign affairs committee: ““I am shocked.”
Members of the Commons government operations committee have censured Governor General Mary Simon for attempting to tour Québec City without being able to speak to local residents in French. Simon claimed to have “worked in Québec City quite a bit” but cut short her visit following criticism she appeared incapable of saying more than “Bonjour, comment ca va?” (“Hi, how’s it going?”)
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem yesterday declared victory in the fight against inflation, predicting the economy will be “a good news story” in months ahead: “It’s a pretty good looking story.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly yesterday quietly removed a Russian banker from cabinet’s Ukraine war sanctions list. No reason was given: “Public consultation would not have been appropriate.”
