A series of anti-gay purges in Canada occurred between the 1950s and the 1990s, consisting of mass discrimination and expulsion of Canadian workers in the civil service, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and armed forces due to their suspected homosexuality.[1]
During the early stages of the Cold War, increased surveillance and interference from the Soviet Union resulted in the Canadian government and military becoming increasingly worried about the loyalty of their employees.[2] In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the RCMP was charged with investigating the loyalties, and later the reliability of character, of civil servants and Canadian armed forces members.[3]
The Canadian government determined that homosexuality was a "character defect" and security risk as homosexuals could be possible targets for blackmail by the Soviets.[3] In response to the Canadian government's and the military's concerns, the RCMP began a purge to investigate and discover homosexuality in areas of the Canadian workforce that were deemed important for national security.[3]
The purge was characterized by the intensity of its investigations, with security personnel often using extreme questioning tactics and pseudo-scientific devices, such as the fruit machine.[2] As a result, people were often forced into confession or made to spy on their co-workers.[1] Additionally, numerous LGBT individuals lost their security clearance and were demoted or terminated.[1]
In October 1992, the federal government acknowledged that LGBT discrimination could not be justified based on Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[1] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized in November 2017 for the country's past discriminatory policies and guaranteed a $145 million settlement for affected Canadians.[4][5]