Canadian Queer History

On May 14, 1969 Canada decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults with the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act first introduced in December 1968. It receives royal assent on June 27. One day before the Stonewall Riots took place in New York.

On August 28, 1971, roughly 100 people from Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and the surrounding areas gathered in the pouring rain at Parliament Hill for Canada’s First Gay Liberation Protest and March. They presented a petition to the government with a list of ten demands for equal rights and protections.

Simultaneously, another much smaller group of roughly twenty gay activists demonstrated at Robson Square in Vancouver.

Pride Week 1973 was a national LGBT rights event held in August 1973 in several Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. Programming included an art festival, a dance, picnic, a screening of a documentary and a rally for gay rights that occurred in all the participating cities.

This event represented the shift from the homophile movement into the gay liberation movement, showing the emergence of the concept of gay pride.

Vancouver's earliest Pride celebrations began when the Gay Alliance Toward Equality (GATE) organized a picnic and art exhibit in Ceperley Park. The August 1973 edition of GATE's newspaper, Gay Tide, features coverage of "Gay Pride Week '73.", and was followed shortly thereafter by their first Pride parade in 1978.

Homosexuality is removed as a "disorder' from the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders.

In January, The Brunswick four are arrested at the Brunswick Tavern in Toronto. Some historians believe that the arrest and its consequences was a key incident ushering in a more militant gay and lesbian liberation movement in Canada, much as the Stonewall Inn Riots politicized gays and lesbians in the United States.

This was also one of the first occasions that a gay or lesbian topic received extensive press coverage in Canada. The women brought charges against the officers subsequently for verbal and physical police harassment, however the officers were acquitted due to their switching their hats and badge numbers making them unable to be accurately identified.

From Feb 1975 to June 1976, Police raids ramp up at Club Baths, Neptune Sauna and across gay and lesbian bars in Montreal's Stanley Street gay village, this event was widely perceived as mayor Jean Drapeau's attempts to "clean up" the city in advance of the 1976 Summer Olympics.

"In late May and early June, all the baths in Montreal were closed…For a lot of men in Montreal, their first experience of the great Olympic ‘clean-up’ was the sight of a policeman’s axe crashing through the door of their room at the baths."

An organization called the Comité homosexuel antirépression/Gay Coalition against Repression (CHAR) was set up with representatives from various Montreal gay groups bringing together French and English-speaking activists, lesbians and gay men, with sections of the left and the feminist movements. On Jun 19, more than 300 queers and supporters joined in one of the largest demonstrations up to that point. It was organized by CHAR and protested pre-Olympic cleanup raids. This resistance to the Olympic ‘cleanup’ set the stage for the massive protest which would occur in 1977.

On Feb 17th 1977 Nova Scotia’s LGBT2Q+ community came together for its first public protest, picketing CBC headquarters on the corner of Sackville and South Park Streets over the local station’s refusal to run a public service announcement advertising the Gay Alliance for Equality’s Gayline. Around 21 people marched out front of the CBC building.

Two days later, on February 19, activists in five major Canadian cities (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver) held pickets to make it the first nationally coordinated gay and lesbian demonstration. The CBC head office in Toronto would later enshrine into national policy the rejection of PSAs from gay and lesbian organizations.

Members of GAE convinced the Dalhousie Gazette to lead a nationwide boycott of CBC advertising by university student papers until, many years later, they finally changed their position.

In July, Raymond Barton, Bonnie Perry and Randy Vivian founded the York Rainbow Society of the Deaf. This was the first group for Queer Deaf people formed in Canada. The formation of this group is followed by L’Association des Bonnes Gens Sourds in October 1979 (Montreal).

On the night of Oct. 22, 1977, Montreal police raided Truxx and Le Mystique, two gay bars on Stanley St. This raid was more of a military operation then a normal police intervention: 50 police officers, wearing bulletproof vests with guns (including machine guns) drawn, went in and arrested 146 patrons, all homosexual men, as part of what was at the time the biggest mass arrest since Trudeau had declared the “War Measures Act” during the October Crisis.

The men who were arrested were crowded into holding cells for more than eight hours, and forced to take venereal disease tests. They were also forbidden from calling their lawyers.

The very next day, 2,000 people took to the streets, blocking the corners of Ste. Catherine St. W. and Stanley St. to protest what had happened on the previous night. Police and protestors naturally clashed. In an effort to get the crowd to disperse, police rode their motorcycles into the crowd, clubbing protestors, who in turn threw beer bottles at the police.

Signed in law on December 16, 1977 - Quebec includes sexual orientation in its Human Rights Code, making it the first province in Canada to pass a gay civil rights law. The law makes it illegal to discriminate against gays in housing, public accommodation and employment. The amendment was in response to an especially brutal police raid on the Montreal gay bathhouse called Truxx. The raid was widely publicized and threatened the newly elected Parti Québécois’s image as a progressive party.

By 2001, all provinces and territories took this step except Alberta, Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territories.

Buddies in Bad Times, Canada's oldest surviving theatre company dedicated to LGBT theatre, is launched by Matt Walsh, Jerry Ciccoritti and Sky Gilbert in 1978

In Sept 5-9th 1979, their first production was Gilbert’s Angels in Underwear staged in an old brewery, Dream Factory 496 Queen Street East

The Immigration Act of 1976 came into effect on 1 April 1978. This new amended Act lifted a ban prohibiting homosexuals from immigration. There was a shift in language in this particular legislative act, this was created to state who was welcome in Canada instead of who should be prevented from immigrating. The Act was positively regarded as a progressive piece of legislation and received broad support from the parliamentary parties.

Montreal’s first Gay/Lesbian pride week took place from June 16-23 and was chosen to celebrate Quebec’s first public gay demonstration in response to pre-Olympic anti-gay repression in June 1976.

La Brigade Rose, which organized the first Pride march, didn’t have a Rainbow Flag. So, Montréal activist John Banks sewed together two bedsheets, dyed them pink and cut them into a triangular flag, which he and Montréal drag legend “La Monroe” (a.k.a. Armand Monroe) carried at the head of the march. The march drew 52 attendees who marched from on Saint-Laurent Boulevard from Sherbrooke to Duluth. Montréal Pride is now the largest Pride celebration in the francophone world.

On Feb. 5, 1981 Toronto police stormed four gay bathhouses in the city as part of what they called "Operation Soap," and arrested just under 300 men. For the majority, charges were later dropped or dismissed.

Rallies were held in response to the injustice and to this day it is often referred to as Canada’s Stonewall.

To this day, "Operation Soap" is one of the largest mass arrests in Canada and it was 35 years later in 2016 that Toronto's police chief formally apologized for the raids.

“Look over here, look over there, lesbians are everywhere!” was the chant of over 200 women who marched from Robson’s Square in Vancouver to the West End Community Centre in Canada’s first lesbian pride march which took place on the weekend of the fifth Binational Lesbian Conference. They were there to:

"Define what it means to be lesbian and come out, not just as individual women, but as a movement"

Dorothey Kidd, Organizer

Forty members of the Edmonton Police service, six RCMP officers, and two crown attorneys stormed the Pisces Health Spa, a bathhouse used by gay men, on May 30, 1981, at around 1:30 AM. In the raid, 56 men were arrested and charged while an additional six men, owners and employees, were charged with being keepers of a common bawdy house. A local TV station ran the names of those found at Pisces outing the men publicly. In response to the raid, over 100 people rallied at city hall on June 3 to condemn the raid as a violation of civil rights, as well as a waste of money.

The raid drew groups within Edmonton’s gay community together and made it more vocal and public. It was also noted that the Edmonton police consulted with Toronto police on how to execute the raids. The outrage that Edmontonians felt after the raids led to a more accepted and public LGBTQ community and the lack of tolerance towards infringements of civil liberties in Edmonton.

Vancouver's earliest Pride celebrations began when the Gay Alliance Toward Equality (GATE) organized a picnic and art exhibit in Ceperley Park. The August 1973 edition of GATE's newspaper, Gay Tide, features coverage of "Gay Pride Week '73.", and was followed shortly thereafter by their first Pride parade in 1978.

It would not be until 1981 that there would be an ‘official’ Pride Parade. After years of being turned down by the city, a new municipal government was elected under the leadership of Mike Harcourt who followed through on election promises to the queer community for a proclamation and parade permit. In the lead up to the parade, hate literature was handed out in Burnaby and Port Moody and the queer community faced heightened harassment but that didn’t stop more than 1,500 attendees from showing up.

We told people if they were afraid of coming out but wanted to come out, they could wear paper bags with holes in it for eyes. A few people took up the offer but most didn't.

On October 17th 1981, the now-defunct organization Lesbians Against the Right held a "Dykes in the Streets" march in Toronto, Ontario, with lesbian power, pride, and visibility as the theme. 350 women participated in this demonstration.

On April 21st, Glad Day Bookshop which is the oldest surviving LGBT bookstore across Turtle Island was targeted by the Toronto Police Services in a series of raids. Kevin Orr is charged with "possession of obscene material for purposes of resale."

Edmonton holds its first Gay Pride Weekend June 24-27 in 1982 at Camp Harris with a theme of “Pride through Unity” in the aftermath of the Pisces Bathhouse Raids. The raid and aftermath of the trials sparked outrage and protests, effectively mobilizing the Edmonton queer community. While before, queer groups in the city operated independently, for the first time Edmonon’s gay community came together to organize out of a sense that they had to do more. The gay pride committee was made up of organizers from GATE, Dignity/Edmonton, Gay Fathers, the Privacy Defence Committee and Womonspace and others.

Previously, there are undocumented reports that there was a campfire and baseball game event with 75 people in 1980. There would not be a pride parade until 1991 and it was not until June 26, 1993 that Edmonton’s Pride Parade was officially recognized by the Mayor and City. City Council had been denying requests from GALA (Gay and Lesbian Awareness Society) since 1984 for recognition.

"[In the first parade] It was about 40 people walking down Whyte Avenue," recalls Michael Phair, "15 of which were wearing bags over their heads."

One of Canada's first programs to combat anti-gay discrimination and violence is implemented by the Toronto District School Board after a hate crime in which their employee Kenneth Zeller is murdered in Toronto's High Park.

The Parliamentary Committee on Equality Rights released a report titled "Equality for All" on October 16, 1985. The committee writes that it is shocked by the high level of discriminatory treatment of homosexuals in Canada. The report discusses the harassment, violence, physical abuse, psychological oppression and hate propaganda that homosexuals live with on a daily basis.

The committee recommends that the Canadian Human Rights Act be changed to make it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation. It would take another ten (10) years before this is achieved.

On December 8, Canada Customs seizes more than 500 books and magazines destined for Little Sister's using the 1847 Customs Act prohibiting the importation of books with “immoral or indecent character" that allowed customs officials to confiscating shipments of allegedly “obscene” titles at their own discretion.

Among the 58 titles seized are Jean Genet's Querelle and four other books available at the Vancouver Public Library. The battle heats up after Customs declares the Advocate news magazine inadmissible and the store goes to court. It takes the store two years and $5,000 in legal fees to get the government to admit that it should never have seized the magazines in the first place. By then, unfortunately, the magazines had been burned.

The first recognized Gay Pride March took place later on August 2nd, 1987 with approximately 250 attendees when they gathered at the Manitoba Legislative Building to await the results of the provincial government's decision to include sexual orientation in the Manitoba Human Rights Code. The consensus was that if the government voted in favor of including sexual orientation in the code they would march in celebration, if the government voted against including sexual orientation in the code they would march in protest.

The provincial government voted in favor of adding sexual orientation to the Manitoba Human Rights Code, which sparked the first 'Pride Parade' in Winnipeg as the 250 people marched in the streets of downtown Winnipeg in celebration.

Some of the first participants of this event actually wore paper bags over their heads out of fear of rallying in public.

Previously, From October 1st to 6th, 1973 Gays For Equality sponsored Winnipeg’s first Gay Pride Week. Events were scheduled around panel discussions, films, coffee house gatherings, musical performances and dancing. However, this Pride event was not officially recognized by the city.

British Columbia MP Svend Robinson came out as Canada's first openly gay member of parliament. Robinson publicly announced he was gay during an interview with CBC reporter Barbara Frum.

Robinson was the lone publicly gay MP for another six years, until Quebecois Réal Ménard came out in 1994, followed by B.C. MP Libby Davies who was the first lesbian to come out in 2001.

The Gay Alliance for Equality, formally established in 1973, was the first organization in Nova Scotia to fight for gay rights. In 1978 there was a large national conference in Halifax of gay and lesbian activists. About 200 participants marched through Halifax.

But in 1988, things had hardly improved. That was the year Eric Smith, a teacher in Shelburne County, was fired by the school board for having HIV. John William Tha Din was beaten to death in Camp Hill Cemetery, a gay cruising area. And the AIDS crisis further stigmatized anybody who was gay.

"For us, violence was part of the 1980s in a very big way," says Chris Aucoin. "There was no human rights protection. You could lose your job if it was found out that you were queer. You could lose your apartment. You could be denied service in a restaurant. Or you could get beaten up. Gay bashing was common and pleas to the authorities went unheard."

About 75 people marched through Halifax's North End along Gottingen Street that first year. A handful wore paper bags over their heads, not out of shame, but out of the very real fear for their livelihoods and their safety.

Somebody drove his car into the crowd and laughed about it. People were yelling things from the sidewalk, or pointing their finger as if it was a gun and making shooting sounds. That may not sound like a big deal, but in a context of people getting physically attacked that is very real and threatening.

May 17, the World Health Organization (WHO) voted to remove 'homosexuality' from being designated a mental disorder in the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10).

Fed up with years of seizures, Little Sister's launches a constitutional challenge to Customs' censorship powers on June 7th, 1990. Together with the BC Civil Liberties Association, the store contends that Customs is discriminating against gay men and lesbians and violating the freedom of expression guaranteed under the Charter Of Rights And Freedoms.

December 15, 2000, ten years after it began, the Little Sister's case reached the Supreme Court Of Canada which rules that Customs targeted Little Sister’s solely because it's a gay and lesbian bookstore. But also ruled that Customs can continue to screen and censor material at the border, provided it screens equally, without regard to the orientation of the material. This meant that Customs now had to prove that confiscated materials were obscene while previously it was up to the importer to prove otherwise.

On July 15, Police raid The Sex Garage's After Party. The violence ignited 36 hours of clashes between Montreal’s LGBT community and the police force, which was accused at the time of harbouring a culture of homophobia. The Sex Garage raid is now widely considered to be Montreal’s Stonewall, after the New York City riots in 1969 that marked a turning point for the LGBT rights movement worldwide.

Sex Garage politicized a generation of LGBT activists who would change the Quebec political landscape, uniting gays and lesbians, and francophones and anglophones, in a common front. These activists would establish the Divers/Cité Pride March and political-action groups like La Table de concertation des gaies et lesbiennes du grand Montréal to successfully fight for LGBT civil rights and improve gay life in Montreal.

The term Two Spirit (niizh manidoowag) is coined at the third annual Native American/First Nations Gay and Lesbian Conference in Winnipeg.

The term allows Indigenous LGBTQ+ folks to reject other English terms that impose the Western views of gender and sexuality on indigenous people.

City of Toronto officially endorses the Lesbian and Gay Pride Day in Toronto.

Captain Joshua Birch launched a human rights complaint after being discharged from the Canadian Forces for disclosing he was gay. He successfully argued that the omission of sexual orientation from the Canadian Human Rights Act constituted discrimination under the equality rights guarantee set out in section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

To remedy this under-inclusive piece of legislation, on August 6, 1992 the Ontario Court of Appeal "read" the term sexual orientation into the Canadian Human Rights Act. This meant that whenever someone read the section, they had to understand that "sexual orientation" was also covered under the Act. [Haig and Birch v. Can., (1992)]

Federal Justice Minister Kim Campbell responds to the decision by announcing the government would take the necessary steps to include sexual orientation in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

In January 1990, Michelle Douglas, a lesbian woman who had been dismissed from the armed forces launched a lawsuit against the military for compensation for her dismissal and to challenge its discriminatory policy against gay and lesbian service members. On 27 October 1992, the day the trial of her case was to begin, the armed forces agreed to settle and as part of the settlement the Federal Court signed a judgment granting declarations that Douglas’s section 15(1) rights had been violated and that "the Defendant's poli[cies] ... regarding the service of homosexuals in the Canadian Armed Forces are contrary to the Charter."

Later that day, the Chief of Defence Staff issued a statement that "Canadians, regardless of their sexual orientation, will now be able to serve their country ... without restriction".

On June 30, 1993 the Supreme Court ruled that gays and lesbians could apply for refugee status on the basis of facing persecution in their countries of origin.

In a ruling regarding an unrelated LGBT2Q+ case, the Supreme Court of Canada, in a landmark (and precedent-setting) decision, declared that sexual orientation should be seen as a “social group” within the context of determining convention refugee status. This ruling opened up the way for LGBTQ+ refugees to seek protection in Canada.

On February 17, a legendary bar in Montreal's gay milieu, the KOX / Katakombes was raided by Montreal police who arrested all 165 men present for having been in a "bawdy house". This event barely took place a few weeks after the hearings of the Human Rights Commission which, among other things, pointed the finger at the police for its repression of the gay community.

Gay and Lesbian Pride March took place on July 16, 1994, individuals took to the streets of Charlottetown to demand protection under the law and raise awareness.

"I definitely had some trepidation and I think some of that was highlighted by the fact that we had people walking with bags over their head because they were terrified of being outed."

At one point, oranges were thrown at those in the march from behind a fence, some of which were simply gathered up by marchers who made smoothies with them later.

The march was organized to help push for changes in the P.E.I. Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation.

A landmark Ontario Human Rights decision on March 6, 1995 found that Hamilton Mayor Bob Morrow discriminated against homosexuals by refusing to proclaim Gay Pride Week in Hamilton in 1991. Morrow was ordered to pay $5,000 to the complainant in the case, Joe Oliver.

The 26-page decision released on March 2, 1995, said Morrow contravened the Ontario Human Rights Act by discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Morrow was ordered to proclaim Gay Pride Week the following year if it was requested, but instead council passed a ban of all proclamations to avoid issuing the Gay Pride edict.

An Ontario Court judge finds that the Child and Family Services Act of Ontario infringes Section 15 of the Charter by not allowing same-sex couples to bring a joint application for adoption. Concluding that “I cannot imagine a more blatant example of discrimination,”

Justice Nevins ruled that the definition of “spouse” should be amended to include partners of the same sex and that the four lesbians have the right to adopt their partner’s children.

On May 24, 1995 Ontario becomes the first province to make it legal for same-sex couples to adopt. British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia follow suit, also allowing adoption by same-sex couples. Other provinces are looking into the issue.

The Supreme Court rules on 25 May, 1995 on the case involving Jim Egan and Jack Nesbit, two gay men who sued Ottawa for the right to claim a spousal pension under the Old Age Security Act. The court rules against Egan and Nesbit. However, the Court ruled that Section 15 of the Charter — which guarantees the "right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination" — should include sexual orientation, even though it is not specifically named in the section.

In 1995, City of London mayor, Dianne Haskett refused requests by HALO (London gay rights group) to officially recognize Pride weekend.

As a result the Halo’s president, Richard Hudler, filed a human rights complaint where the Ontario Human Rights Commission ruled that Haskett’s actions had been discriminatory, and ordered London to officially proclaim a Pride weekend, which it eventually did in 1998. The City of London and Mayor Diane Haskett are fined $10,000.

Receiving royal assent on June 20, 1996, the federal government passed Bill C-33, adding "sexual orientation" to the Canadian Human Rights Act which covers federally-regulated activities. Parliament enacted Bill C-33, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act, to include sexual orientation among the Act’s prohibited grounds of discrimination.

Bill C-33 had the effect of codifying the law as stated in the Ontario Court of Appeal’s Haig (1992) decision and since practised by the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

This inclusion was a clear declaration by Parliament that gay, lesbian and bisexual Canadians are entitled to "an opportunity equal with other individuals to make for themselves the lives they are able and wish to have [...]"

Counting Past 2 was a Trans Arts Festival that ran between 1997 and 2002 in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded in 1997 by activist/artist Mirha-Soleil Ross, in recognition of the distinctive cultural and economic situation of trans communities.

The festival's goal was to be more inclusive and encouraging of trans artists than mainstream gay and lesbian film festivals by centering trans voices, accepting less-polished work and including cabaret and performance components instead of restricting submissions to films.

It was the first festival of it's kind in the North America, and thought to be the first in the world.

In 1991, Delvin Vriend, a lab instructor at King's University College in Edmonton, Alberta, who was open about being in a same-sex relationship, was fired because his sexual orientation was deemed incompatible with a newly created statement of religious belief adopted by The King's College. He attempted to file a discrimination complaint, however the Alberta Human Rights Commission refuses to investigate the case because the Alberta Individual Rights Protection Act does not cover discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Vriend subsequently sued the Government of Alberta and its Human Rights Commission and, in 1994, an Alberta court ruled that sexual orientation must be treated as a protected class under human rights legislation. The provincial government subsequently appealed and in 1996 the decision was overruled by the Alberta Court of Appeal. This decision was then appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Vriend v. Alberta, who finally ruled on April 2, 1998 that provincial governments could not exclude protection of individuals from human rights legislation on the basis of sexual orientation.

On May 19, 1999 the Supreme Court rules that the Ontario Family Law Act's definition of "spouse" as a person of the opposite sex is unconstitutional as was any provincial law that denies equal benefits to same-sex couples. Ontario is given six months to amend the act.

The ruling centred on the "M v. H" case which involved two Toronto women who had lived together for more than a decade. When the couple broke up in 1992, "M" sued "H" for spousal support under Ontario's Family Law Act. The problem was that the act defined "spouse" as either a married couple or "a man and woman" who are unmarried and have lived together for no less than three years.

The judge rules that the definition violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and declares that the words "a man and woman" should be replaced with "two persons." "H" appeals the decision. The Court of Appeal upholds the decision but gives Ontario one year to amend its Family Law Act. Although neither "M" nor "H" chooses to take the case any further, Ontario's attorney general is granted leave to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal, which brought the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In 1999 Blockorama made its appearance as the very first black queer space in the Toronto pride festival. Today it is an all day dance party and stage during Pride to celebrate Black Queer and Trans history, creativity and activism.

Blocko shows us that we are not alone, that we are resilient and [that] we know how to have fun in a [world] where we were never meant to survive.

Although many laws will have to be revised to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling in May, the federal government votes 216 to 55 in favour of preserving the definition of "marriage" as the union of a man and a woman. Justice Minister Anne McLellan says the definition of marriage is already clear in law and the federal government has "no intention of changing the definition of marriage or legislating same-sex marriage."

Attorney General Jim Flaherty introduced Bill 5 in the Ontario legislature on Oct 25, 1999, an act to amend certain statutes because of the Supreme Court of Canada decision in the M. v. H. case.

Instead of changing Ontario's definition of spouse, which the Supreme Court essentially struck down, the government creates a new same-sex category, changing the province's Family Law Act to read "spouse or same-sex partner" wherever it had read only "spouse" before. Bill 5 also amends more than 60 other provincial laws, making the rights and responsibilities of same-sex couples mirror those of common-law couples.

Alberta passes Bill 202 which says that the province will use the notwithstanding clause if a court redefines marriage to include anything other than a man and a woman.

In February, the Liberal party introduced Bill C-23, the Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act, in response to the Supreme Court's May 1999 ruling. The act would give same-sex couples who have lived together for more than a year the same benefits and obligations as common-law couples.

In March, Justice Minister Anne McLellan announces the bill will include a definition of marriage as "the lawful union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others."

On April 11, 2000, Parliament passes Bill C-23, with a vote of 174 to 72. The legislation gives same-sex couples the same social and tax benefits as heterosexuals in common-law relationships.

In total, the bill affects 68 federal statutes relating to a wide range of issues such as pension benefits, old age security, income tax deductions, bankruptcy protection and the Criminal Code. The definitions of "marriage" and "spouse" are left untouched but the definition of "common-law relationship" is expanded to include same-sex couples.

On September 14, six male officers from the Toronto Police raided Club Toronto during an all-female queer and trans event known as the “Pussy Palace.” This event resulted in protests and pickets of the Toronto police's 52 Division.

In 2002, an Ontario provincial court judge ruled that police were wrong to raid the party and a 2005 class action lawsuit  and complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission resulted in a $350,000 settlement which included a formal apology in writing and required the force to establish cultural competency training for all members regarding the LGBT community.

Little Sisters Bookstore in Vancouver launched a constitutional challenge over its treatment at the hands of Canada Customs, which had been delaying and holding shipments from the US. The Book and Art Emporium claimed Customs was purposefully targeting them.

The Supreme Court agreed in a ruling on December 15, 2000 that the actions by Canada Customs were targeting Little Sisters and Justice Ian Binnie stated "when Customs officials prohibit and thereby censor lawful gay and lesbian erotica, they are making a statement about gay and lesbian culture, and the statement was reasonably interpreted by the appellants as demeaning gay and lesbian values".

The problem persists, however, with gay bookstores alleging that Customs guards disproportionately cite the Supreme Court's 1992 Butler decision against gay and lesbian publications which ruled that material containing scenes of sex mixed with violence and cruelty could be seized.

On Nov 18, over 3,000 people came together for a march and vigil protesting anti-gay violence held to commemorate the death of Vancouver resident Aaron Webster who was assaulted and killed in Stanley Park by four young offenders in one of Canada's most notorious anti-gay hate crimes. Webster’s death ignited a community that had enough after a series of hate motivated attacks against members of the queer community.

The Northwest Territories became the first jurisdiction in Canada to explicitly add "gender identity" to its human rights legislation as a prohibited ground of discrimination.

On May 10th, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert McKinnon rules that a gay student has the right to take his boyfriend to the prom. This legal case was a result of the Durham Catholic District School Board trying to restrict a student, Marc Hall from bringing his boyfriend to the dance at Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic high school in Oshawa.

School officials acknowledge that Hall has the right to be gay, but said permitting the date would send a message that the Church supports his "homosexual lifestyle.". The courts issued an injunction against the Durham Catholic District School Board, allowing Hall to attend the prom with his boyfriend on May 10, 2002. Hall would eventually withdraw his lawsuit in June 2005, after multiple delays.

For the first time in Canadian immigration history, gay men and lesbians are able to formally sponsor their partners. On 28 June 2002, the IRPA and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations came into effect.

The new law and regulations have expanded the family class to incorporate common law and conjugal partners, in addition to married spouses. The new legislative and regulatory scheme sets out the rules concerning the sponsorship of same-sex partners. In changing its immigration policy to include same-sex couples, Canada joined several other countries in extending immigration rights to prospective gay and lesbian immigrants.

The road to Marriage equality began on July 12, 2002, when Justice LaForme, for a unanimous Ontario Superior Court of Justice, released a landmark decision that would pave the way towards gay marriage in Ontario and across North America. The Ontario Superior Court ruled that prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying is unconstitutional and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court gave Ontario two years to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.

As a result of the Ontario ruling, the Alberta government passes a bill banning same-sex marriages and defines marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. The province says it will use the notwithstanding clause to avoid recognizing same-sex marriages if Ottawa amends the Marriage Act.

Thousands of people lined the streets of Quebec's capital city Sunday for the community's first gay pride parade.

The march was held to mark the 25th anniversary of the province's bill of rights, which outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Goliath’s Sauna and Texas Lounge, a gay bathhouse in Calgary was raided for being a common bawdy house in 2002. Authorities charged two bartenders with running a common bawdy house and 13 patrons as having no lawful excuse for being there. The Crown eventually stayed the charges citing changed community standards.

"We thought the era of police raiding our sexuality was over"

Michael Leshner and Michael Stark became the first same-sex couple to be issued a marriage license and marry in Toronto, Ontario after the ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeals.

The unanimous Court found that the exclusion of same-sex couples was a clear violation of the Charter of Rights & Freedoms, the court ruling allowing same-sex couples to marry would take effect immediately.

In the next two years, seven provinces and one territories also legalized same-sex marriage B.C (2003) Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, Quebec, Yukon (2004), and New Brunswick (2005).

On August 4, 2004, under the guise of performing public health inspections, authorities in Hamilton arrested two patrons for indecency and sparked outrage in the local queer community. Police later admitted learning gay activities happened at the establishment thanks to spotting comments on a gay cruising website, despite initially suggesting they had no idea the business was a bathhouse.

Bill C-38 bill became federal law which gave same-sex couples the legal right to marry. This made Canada the fourth country in the world to allow same-sex marriage. Official Legislative summary:

'This enactment extends the legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes to same-sex couples in order to reflect values of tolerance, respect and equality, consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It also makes consequential amendments to other Acts to ensure equal access for same-sex couples to the civil effects of marriage and divorce'

A motion tabled by the ruling Conservatives on Dec 7, 2006 to reopen the same-sex marriage debate is defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 175-123. Twelve Tories — including five cabinet ministers — broke from party lines and voted against the motion.

The facts from this case and the court decisions have been the cause of much debate regarding transgender rights. Kimberly Nixon is a transgender woman who filed a human rights complaint against Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter Society (VRRS) for discrimination. VRRS argued that Nixon, a transgender individual, did not have the proper life experiences as a woman from birth would, and could not volunteer as a peer rape counselor.

Although Nixon won the Human Rights Tribunal on the grounds that the society discriminated against her, subsequent appeals decided that the VRRS was not guilty of discrimination based on the group’s right of freedom of association. This meant that the group had the right to organize as a women-only space, irrespective of gender identity. On February 1, 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed Nixon’s request to appeal the decision.

The City of Vancouver stops municipal funding to VRRC as the organization does not meet its trans equality and inclusion criteria.

An Ontario court ruled on Mar 1, 2007 in response to a class-action challenge to Ottawa's policy of denying same-sex survivors benefits to people whose partners died before 1998.That date was set when Parliament passed legislation in 2000 that broadened benefit rights for same-sex couples. The court ruled that benefits will be retroactive to April 17, 1985, when equality rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into effect.

The Trans March, originally started by Karah Mathiason began in response to Pride’s lack of organizing efforts for the Trans* Community.

The march, which was not recognized by Pride Toronto as an officially programmed event, was a short route that from Church & Bloor Streets to Church & Wellesley Streets.

When the march reached the Church and Wellsley Streets, they were met with large metal barricades lined up across the street. The marchers, disappointed and frustrated, pushed through the barricades, and finished the first ever Trans March inside the Village.

Fredericton’s annual Queer Pride celebrations have always been an exciting time of year for the city’s queer community, but this year the community was particularly proud. In a unanimous vote earlier this year, Fredericton’s City Council allowed the Fredericton Pride 2010 Committee to hold the city’s first Queer Pride Parade on August 8th.

The decision ended years of struggle by the queer community and allies to hold such a parade in the provincial capital because of City Council’s opposition (similar marches have been happening for years in Saint John and Moncton). With over three hundred marchers in attendance, as well as several hundred onlookers lining the parade route, the march was both a celebration of the city’s sexual and political diversity, as well as a way for straight allies to show support and solidarity with queer friends, family, and co-workers.

British Columbia was the host to the 2010 Winter Olympics, for the first time, the Olympic games included the Pride House for LGBT athletes.

Organised by PolitiQ-queer solidaire, an activist group fighting against all forms of heterosexist and cissexist oppression and exclusion in Quebec.

Nearly 200 people gathered for the 2010 demonstration, which included community organizations advocating for the rights of trans people and leading public figures from legal, academic, and political sectors. The protesters demanded changes be made to Quebec's existing regulations requiring those seeking gender marker changes to their civil status to undergo forced sterilization, as well as more accessible ways of changing one's name.

Angela James was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010, becoming the first openly gay player, and only the second black athlete to ever be inducted.

Angela James aka "the Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey" among many other achievements led the Canadian women’s hockey team to four world championships (1990, 1992, 1994, and 1997).

James has been a dominant force in promoting and inspiring women and young girls in sports, each year the CWHL awards the highest scoring player the Angela James Bowl. In 2009 the city of Toronto renamed her hometown hockey arena the Angela James Arena to honour her contributions and work within the local community.

Court of Appeal rules that marriage officers can’t refuse permits to same-sex couples on religious grounds. The decision by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal rejects two proposals from the provincial government that would allow some or all marriage commissioners to refuse to perform a service involving gay or lesbian partners if it offended their religious beliefs.

The government proposed that marriage commissioners who were employed before the law changed in 2004 could refuse to perform the services. It also proposed a second option where all marriage commissioners could refuse.

In the fall of 2012, the bishop of the territory introduced a policy for the Catholic school’s discussions about sexuality. It was called: 'One Heart, One Truth, One Love.'

'It went straight back to the Catholic doctrine of morally disturbed 'same-sex attractions' – our queer kids were being taught they were evil. We were not OK with that.’’ - Former teacher and Queer Yukon activist Stephanie Hammond. So over a beer with another local Fiona Griffin, they organized the town’s first pride march.

The community events took place from Aug 31 - Sept 3, 2012

"I hope (NWT Pride) will raise awareness that other people that identify in smaller communities, even in Yellowknife, can see that we are a community and that we are a group of people that work together and support each other. It’s a beautiful community to be a part of and there is nothing to be ashamed of,"

Kathleen Wynne wins the leadership of the governing Ontario Liberal Party on the 3rd ballot in its leadership election. Wynne is formally sworn into office on February 11, becoming both Ontario's first female Premier and Canada's first openly LGBT Premier.

The federal government introduced Bill C-32, An Act to amend the Civil Marriage Act (otherwise known as the Civil Marriage of Non-residents Act), in February 2012. The bill allows for people who married in Canada because same-sex marriage isn’t allowed where they live, to get a divorce from a Canadian court. Bill C-32 received Royal Assent on 26 June 2013.

The second-ever International Asexuality Conference took place at Ryerson University’s Rogers Communications Centre. This is the first Asexual conference and/gathering held in Canada.

As a part of World Pride, the conference covered various subtopics of asexuality including a history of asexuality and the asexual (ace) community, current research in asexuality, grey-asexuality, and demisexuality.

The First ever World Conference had been previously held in London, UK in 2012.

Out of the controversy over a flag came the idea for a party. It began when the city of Iqaluit raised a rainbow flag at city hall to protest anti-gay laws in Russia during the 2014 Winter Olympics, at the initiative of city Councillor Kenny Bell and Iqaluit resident Anubha Momin. Councillor Simon Nattaq argued that the decision had not been approved by council, and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc president Cathy Towtongie commended Nattaq for speaking out. These events sparked lively discussion among the residents of Nunavut about same-sex issues, including whether it’s within Inuit custom to be gay.

In the midst of this discussion, the idea for a party emerged, specifically, an Iqaluit Pride party, the first of its kind in the capital city of Nunavut.

Estefan Cortes-Vargas (born 1991) is elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta becoming the first out non-binary politician. They are one of three out LGBT2Q+ people elected to the Alberta Legislature.

The Colombian born politician chose to not run for re-election in the 2019 elections and was instead named executive director of the Pride Centre of Edmonton.

Over 70 members of the trans community and allies marched through downtown St. Johns to shine a light on the issues that face trans people in Newfoundland and Labrador. Community activists voted at a community meeting in June to have a Trans March separate from the Pride Parade.

I believe this march is a demonstration of what Pride Week could and should be — community organizing and political action, without asking permission.

The march was an unsanctioned St.John’s Pride event and was held without a permit and follows on the heels of a smaller trans rally on July 13, 2014, attended by 10 community members that was organized by Jennifer McCreath in an attempt to raise awareness to some of the challenges still facing members of the trans community.

For the first time in Canadian history, a pride flag is raised on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

Since 2013, Canada has had a 5-year deferral period for MSM donors – meaning they were unable to donate blood if they have had sexual relationships with men during the past five years. On June 20, 2016 Health Canada approved a request from the two blood agencies, Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec to reduce this period to one year.

The ban remains in place for MSM who are sexually active.

On July 3, 2016 Black Lives Matter - Toronto took the opportunity as the honoured group in the Pride Parade to halt the parade in an effort to address anti-blackness within an already marginalized community. The chapter consulted with Black Queer Youth, an organization for LGBTQ youth, which had its stage moved farther away from the main crowd; queer Indigenous people who have also boycotted pride and its erasure; and Blackness Yes, the community organization that hosts Blockorama, Pride Toronto’s stage for People of Colour, which has also faced some of the largest budget cuts

The group released a list of demands, including a commitment to increase representation among Pride Toronto staff, and to prioritize the hiring of black transgender women and indigenous people. The group also viewed the shutdown as a moment to highlight how Toronto Pride and the Toronto police were attempting to erase the department's poor relationship with the communities.

Although met with mixed reception from both within the queer community and outside, this marked a collective outpouring of frustration and demands for equality and an end to racism from many queer indigenous and people of colour who were being marginalized within the queer community.

The first annual Haldimand Norfolk Day was celebrated on Saturday May 24, 2017 in Dunnville’s Central Park, it was reported by the media (Sachem and the Haldimand Press) 200-300 people attended this first time event in the rural region of Haldimand Norfolk.

This event was primary organized by a small group of people led by Ken Hancock, it has since evolved to PRIDE Haldimand-Norfolk which is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in our community and providing equal opportunity to people of all genders, sexual orientations, and gender identifications.

On June 19, Bill C-16 was passed by the federal government and received Royal Assent. The bill updated the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to include the terms "gender identity" and "gender expression." The legislation also makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity or expression.

It also extends hate speech laws to include the two terms, and makes it a hate crime to target someone for being transgender. The bill also amends the sentencing principles section of the code so that a person's gender identity or expression can be considered an aggravating circumstance by a judge during sentencing.

Julie Lemieux won 48% of the vote to become Mayor of Très-Saint-Rédempteur, a municipality in the Montérégie region of Quebec.

This marked the first time a transgender person was elected as mayor in any municipality across Canada and the first female mayor in the history of Très-Saint-Rédempteur.

"We're writing history and I have a lot to offer."

This bill marks November 20th as the official Trans Day of Remembrance and requires the legislature to hold a minute of silence at 10:29 am each year in honour of trans people who have died as a result of anti-trans violence.

Ontario's government is the first to legislate recognition of the day.

Kael McKenzie (born 1971) is appointed to the Provincial Court of Manitoba making him the first transgender person appointed as a judge in Canada.

"I didn’t set out to be a trailblazer or to try to have courage. It just happened that way.

He is a member of the Manitoba Métis Nation and has also served as the Manitoba chair of the Canadian Bar Association, and president of the provincial Rainbow Resource Centre for Manitoba's LGBT2Q+ community.

Historically, Canada unjustly convicted and imposed criminal records on individuals for engaging in consensual sexual activity between same-sex partners that would be lawful today. On November 28, 2017, the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an official apology for Canada’s role in the criminalization, oppression and violence towards the LGBT2Q+ community and introduced legislation – Bill C-66, the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act– to put into place an expungement process to permanently destroy the records of these convictions.The bill received royal assent on June 21, 2018.

Bill C-66:An Act to establish a procedure for expunging certain historically unjust convictions and to make related amendments to other Acts

An electronic petition filed with the House of Commons, E-1589, calls on the Liberal government to stop a practice it says imposes a stigma on gay and bisexual men. Petitioners say the policy also bars Canadian Blood Services — which routinely faces donor shortages — from a potential pool of healthy, safe donations. It was presented to the House of Commons on Dec 10, 2018.

Health Canada announces on May 8 that they will lower the blood donation deferral period, clearing gay and bisexual men to donate blood after abstaining from sex with other men for three months, instead of one year. They still refuse to eliminate the ban.

On May 23, the World Health Organization (WHO) voted to remove 'transgender' from being designated a mental disorder.

The W.H.O will now use the term 'gender incongruence' to describe people whose gender identity is different from the gender they were assigned at birth. This term has been added to the sexual health category of the 11th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11).

University of Winnipeg launches the first Two-Spirit archives in Canada. The collection — mostly donated by long-time Winnipeg two-spirit activist Albert McLeod is believed to be the most comprehensive collection of two-spirit materials in Canada, The archives will be used by researchers, historians and two-spirit people to tell the story of the movement's 40-year history.

The Canadian Government repeals Section 159 of the Criminal Code, which prohibited anal intercourse except by a husband and a wife or two persons who are both 18 years or older, provided that the act was consensual and took place in private. The repeal of Section 159 eliminates the disparity in the age of consent for anal intercourse versus other sexual acts; the age of consent is now 16 for all sexual acts.

Community group, Intersex London On lobbied the City of London to raise the Intersex flag at city hall for the first time in 2019 to mark Intersex Awareness Day (October 26th).

The City of Barrie also raised the intersex flag at City Hall on the same morning.

On October 29, hundreds gathered outside the Toronto Public Library to protest the library allowing their space to be used for an event by a controversial feminist writer with transphobic views. Toronto library officials have defended renting out the room for Megan Murphy’s appearance by saying she does not fall under the library’s definition of hate speech. Murphy believes trans women should not use public washrooms designated for women or compete in sporting events against cisgendered women. She claims trans women endanger cis women and women’s rights.

Having a transphobic speaker at the library endangers me because among other things they advocate ... that I'm a threat to other women. These statements cause people to fear trans women and act violently toward us in public spaces.

In the aftermath of the protests many authors and queer organizers have refused to do events or engagements at the Toronto Public Library. The Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians issued a statement asserting that the Toronto Public LIbrary in allowing the talk in the name of intellectual freedom failed to adequately consider the impact that decision would play in perpetuating discrimination against the transgender community. It further committed to re-examine how the library community understands and deploys core values and principles.

The B.C. Court of Appeal reaffirms a 15-year-old's right to undergo hormone treatment even without their parents’ consent, as long as they have been assessed by a health care provider to understand the nature, consequences, benefits and risks of the proposed treatment, and as long as the health care provider opines that the treatment is in the teenager’s best interests.

But the ruling also throws out part of a lower court order that said the father's misgendering of his son constituted "family violence" under the Family Law Act. A previous ruling by the B.C. The Supreme Court judge declared that identifying the teen as a girl would be considered family violence under the Family Law Act, given the harm it had caused him. That has been struck down by the new ruling.

Federal Government introduces Bill C-8: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy) which proposes legislative amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada that will make providing, forcing, profiting from or advertising conversion therapy a criminal act. The changes would also authorize courts to order the seizure and removal of advertisements for conversion therapy.

The bill died on the Order Paper when Parliament was prorogued on 18 August 2020. The Bill was reintroduced as Bill C-6 on October 1, 2020 by the Attorney General of Canada, David Lametti.

Conversion Therapy is already banned to different degrees in Ontario, Manitoba, Vancouver, Quebec, Yukon, Nova Scotia and PEI. This bill will ensure it is banned nationwide. As of July 2021, the bill is currently under referral for consideration in Senate Committee after it's second reading in the Senate.

On January 28th, Justice Gregory Moore of the Superior Court of Quebec declared six (6) provisions of the province's Civil Code unconstitutional.

Filed initially in 2014, the Centre for Gender Advocacy at Concordia University sought to invalidate 11 articles of the Quebec Civil Code, arguing that they violated rights under the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Court deemed unconstitutional that the requirement that people can only be designated as either male or female. It also declared that trans parents have a right to change their designation on their children’s birth certificate and to be recognized as “parent” and not just “mother” or “father”.  It struck down the requirement to be a Canadian citizen in order to change one’s name or gender.  The Court also struck down the requirement for a medical evaluation for trans youth; however the Court unfortunately did not strike down the parental veto over name changes. Disappointingly, the Court did not strike down the requirement to designate a sex at birth without exception, including for intersex individuals.

Blake Desjarlais is elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 2021 Federal Election as MP for Edmonton-Griesbach, becoming the first openly Two-Spirit Member of Parliament elected to office. Blake, who is of  Cree and Métis descent is originally from the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement in northern Alberta.

"I really hope through my visibility in Parliament we can start that conversation and hopefully inspire others to see the beauty and uniqueness of Two-Spirit identities, as holistic and whole beings who belong in societies,"

In October 2021, the City of London, Ontario unveiled the first Intersex Flag crosswalk painted in Canada at the Central & Wellington St Intersection. Advocacy to the City of London for the painting of the crosswalk and representation for Intersex Awareness Day was part of the ongoing work of the Intersex Advocacy group - Intersex London Ontario led by Piper Kearney.