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Explore the history of GLBT rights in Canada, including the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2005. Learn about significant individuals and their contributions to the movement.
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GLBT (Gays, Lesbian, Bi-sexual & Trangender) On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world, and the first country outside Europe, to legalize same –sex marriage nationwide with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act which provided a gender-neutral marriage definition. Court decisions, starting in 2003, had already legalized same-sex marriage in eight out of ten
provinces and one of three territories, whose residents comprised about 90% of Canada's population. Before passage of the Act, more than 3,000 same-sex couples had already married in those areas. Most legal benefits commonly associated with marriage had been extended to cohabiting same-sex couples since 1999.
The Civil Marriage Act was introduced by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberal minority government in the Canadian House of Commons on February 1, 2005 as Bill C-38. It was passed by the House of Commons on June 28, 2005, by the Senate on July 19, 2005, and it received Royal Assent the following day. On December 7, 2006, the House of Commons effectively reaffirmed the
legislation by a vote of 175 to 123, defeating a motion of the Conservative minority government to examine the matter again. This was the third vote supporting same-sex marriage taken by three Parliaments under three Prime Ministers in three different years.
Susan Urselis a lawyer working in the areas of labour and human rights. Susan has been involved in the lesbian and gay community for many years, as a lawyer and an activist. In 1994, she was the Lobby Coordinator for the Campaign for Equal Families, working for passage of Ontario's Bill 167, the first same-sex relationship recognition legislation to be introduced in a
Canadian legislature. She was a founder and is a director of the Foundation for Equal Families which continues this work, most recently with its legal challenge to Federal legislation which discriminates against same-sex partners. This effort has culminated in the introduction Bill C-23, the Federal response to ending discrimination against our relationships.
Svend Robinson SvendRobinson is a Canadian former politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1979 to 2004, representing the suburban Vancouver-area constituency of Burnaby for the New Democratic Party.
Richard Vincent "Rick" Mercer is a Canadian comedian, television personality and political satirist. Mercer's partner since 1990 is television producer Gerald Lunz. Although the romantic relationship came first, Lunz is also Mercer's long-time partner in business, who discovered him, fostered his career,
and is currently the executive producer of The Rick Mercer Report. He regards his personal life as private, and says little about it in public beyond acknowledging that he is gay;in a 2011 interview on CBC Radio One’s The Current, he clarified that he doesn't specifically mention his sexuality on Rick Mercer Report because it's just "not what the show is about.
Other GBLT people of Distinction: Kathryn Wynn, Gerrard Ennis
Viola Davis Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Black Nova Scotian who was granted a posthumous pardon, the first to be granted in Canada. The government of Nova Scotia also apologized for convicting her for tax evasion, when, in fact, she was resisting a "whites only" discrimination policy in a movie theatre in 1946. Desmond's story was one of the most
publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history. Desmond acted nine years before the famed incident by civil-rights activist Rosa Parks, with whom Desmond is often compared.
David Suzuki, Co-Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. He is renowned for his radio and television programs that explain the complexities of the natural sciences in a compelling, easily understood way.
Baltej Singh Dhillon, He was born in 1966 in Malaysia and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1982. After graduating from high school, based on his previous experiences, Dhillon decided that he wanted to join the RCMP. He went to a recruiting office and met all the initial requirements. The recruiting officer raised the delicate issue of the turban. RCMP policy did not
allow it; however the issue went to then-Commissioner of the RCMP, Norman Inkster. Inkster sided with Dhillon, and pressure was put on the federal government to change the policy. Over 150,000 people signed petitions to retain the traditional RCMP dress code, and sympathetic legislators
presented the results to Parliament. Conversely, Sikh leaders pointed out that turbaned Sikhs served in the British Army in two World Wars and now work in many Canadian police forces. On March 16, 1990, the federal Solicitor General, Pierre Cadieux, announced in the House of Commons that the policy was theretofore
amended to permit Sikhs to wear the turban while on active duty in the RCMP.
ShannenKoostachinwas born in Attawapiskat First Nation on James Bay coast, Ontario to Andrew Koostachin and Jenny Nakogee. She attended J.R. Nakogee elementary school, which had been housed in makeshift portables since 2000, when it was condemned and closed due to a decades-old fuel leak. By 2007, the federal government had backed away from a third
commitment to building a new school for Attawapiskat. Shannen spoke out about the experiences of her community in newspapers, at conferences, and on the steps of Parliament Hill in 2008. At the age of 14, in 2009 she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize.
Roberta Jamieson, In 1982, Jamieson became the first non-parliamentarian to be appointed an ex-officio member of a House of Commons Committee, the Special Task Force on Indian Self-Government that in 1983 produced a final report known by the name of its chair, “The Penner Report”, supported by all political parties, which stands to this day as a viable framework for
Native self-government in Canada. She was also chair of the legal group advising the Assembly of First Nations during the First Ministers’ Conferences after the patriation of the Constitution.
Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC (born February 20, 1941) is a Canadian-American Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire also includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism.
She founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project, an educational curriculum devoted to better understanding Native Americans. She has won recognition and many awards and honours for both her music and her work in education and social activism. She was born Beverly Sainte-Marie in 1941 on the Piapot Cree First Nations Reserve in the Qu’Appelle Valley,
Saskatchewan, Canada. She was orphaned and later adopted, growing up in Wakefield, Massachusetts with parents Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie, who were related to her biological parents. She attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, earning degrees (BA 1963 and PhD 1983) in teaching and Oriental philosophy and graduating in the top ten of her class.
Albert Dumont, “South Wind”, is a Poet, Storyteller, Speaker, and an Algonquin Traditional Teacher. He was born and raised in traditional Algonquin territory (KitiganZibi). He has been walking the “Red Road” since commencing his sobriety in 1989. Albert is currently a Spiritual Advisor for Aboriginal offenders of J Unit at Millhaven Institution. He has served
with the Ottawa Native Concerns Committee since 1993 and also served with the Ottawa and District Injured Workers Group for six years (he is a survivor of construction accident). He was awarded the Public Service Alliance of Canada – National Capital Region (PSAC NCR) 2010 Human Rights Recognition Award.
Other Aboriginal Peoples of distinction: Leonard Marchant, Louis Reil, Ethel Blondin-Andrew, Justin Rain, Alex Meraz, Adam Beach
Kim Campbell AvrilPhædra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947), PC CC OBC QC, is a Canadian politician, lawyer, university professor, diplomat, and writer. She served as the 19th Prime Minister of Canada, from June 25, 1993 to November 4, 1993. Campbell was the first, and to date, the only female Prime Minister of Canada, the first baby
boomer to hold that office, and the only Prime Minister born in British Columbia.
BETTY BANNON Betty was elected National President of the Union of Taxation Employees in July 1999 and was re-elected to the same position in July 2002, July 2005 and July 2008. She was the first woman to hold that position. Betty first became a union activist in 1972. She has held numerous positions in both the Belleville and Toronto Locals until she was elected
Regional Vice-President for Central Ontario (Toronto) in 1981. Betty was later elected to the position of 2nd National Vice-President, then 1st National Vice-President, which she held from 1989 to 1999. Betty was the longest serving member of the UTE Executive.
NycoleTurmelis a long-time trade unionist and served as president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada from 2000 to 2006. Turmel became Fourth Executive Vice-President of the PSAC in 1991, serving until 1994, when she became First Executive Vice-President. In that role, which she continued in until 1997, Turmel was responsible for women's equality issues within the
union. Turmel was elected president of the PSAC on May 5, 2000, becoming the first woman to ever assume this role in the 34-year history of the PSAC. In 2003, she was re-elected for a second three-year term, which concluded in 2006.
