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Accessed From: "About: The Purge." LGBT Purge Fund. https://lgbtpurgefund.com/about/
The LGBT Purge Campaign was a period of time from the 1950s to the 1990s where 2SLGBTQ+ people who served in the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP and the government were targeted, investigated, and often fired for their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. This campaign was a result of stricter national defence measures brought upon with the Cold War. The RCMP and a panel from the National Defence and External Affairs began conducting extensive background checks on all civil servants within the 1940s in order to keep tabs on those who were deemed possible security risks (LGBT Purge Class Action). Those individuals deemed to be a security risk also extended to those who were considered to have 'character weaknesses,' which included homosexuality. In 1948, a Cabinet directive stated that 'maximum care' was necessary to ensure government employees were trustworthy, leading to stronger investigations and purging of individuals by the RCMP (Levy, The Canadian Encyclopedia) It is estimated that over 9,000 people were victims of this Purge, with their careers and lives devastated as a result.
This discrimination against 2SLGBTQ+ people was justified at the time by the claim that they were more susceptible to blackmail during the Cold War. Obviously this wasn't true, but many individuals were forced to undergo many instances of harsh, traumatic interrogation, where their mental health and privacy were violated. The Canadian government even funded psychologists at Carleton University to create a device called the Fruit Machine (pictured to the right), a machine that was supposed to detect whether someone was gay by measuring their reaction to certain images. The Fruit Machine was never used on suspects- the RCMP used lie detector machines instead during their interrogations.
Accessed From: Hauen, Jack. “Canada ‘poured thousands and thousands’ into ‘fruit machine’- a wildly unsuccessful attempt at gaydar.” National Post, May 27, 2017. https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-fruit-machine
Ultimately, those who were confirmed gay or lesbian within these investigations led to them being fired, and were often denied protections (ie benefits, severance, and pensions); those who were offered the opportunity to stay in their positions were denied opportunities for promotion.
Historica Canada. "Women in Canadian History: Michelle Douglas." Uploaded to Youtube October 16, 2018. Accessed December 2, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDbcZxMx1_U&list=PLuWS3yEa9v5W-DbV-E_36UkoteXn87T44&index=30&ab_channel=HistoricaCanada
The practice of interrogating and dismissing 2SLGBTQ+ employees went on for decades, only ending in 1992 after a court case was won against the government by Michelle Douglas, a lesbian woman who had been dismissed from her position in the Armed Forces in 1989. Here is a short video about Michelle Douglas' experience, from Historica Canada.
Accessed From: "About: The Purge." LGBT Purge Fund. https://lgbtpurgefund.com/about/
In 2015, after a long campaign from the We Demand an Apology Network, the federal government officially apologized to the 2SLGBTQ+ community for historical discrimination within civil services, and in 2018, a global settlement of $145 million was reached with some of the victims of the purge. While $110 million was set aside for the victims, $15-25 million was allocated to the LGBT Purge Fund, in order to fund projects and endeavours that contribute to "reconciliation and memorialization measures" of this event. The LGBT Purge Fund is presently in the final stages of deciding on a design for a national 2SLGBTQ+ monument, which will serve to commemorate this event, as well as generations of discrimination and violence against 2SLGBTQ+ communities, while also providing a space to educate and celebrate the resilience and strength of our 2SLGBTQ+ of the past, present, and future. (The LGBT Purge Fund)
It's important to acknowledge though that not all of the victims of the purge received compensation, because many people quit before they could be investigated and fired, which meant their records didn't reflect that they were discriminated against.
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