In the United States, for example, CIA director Roscoe Hillenkoetter stated Initiatives that targeted LGBTQ civil servants as a security threat were not unique to Canada. To be more traitorous than others, but that they are vulnerable to blackmail and might betray official secrets to preserve private ones.”
That is why homosexuals are found to be a danger if placed in positions where important Government secrets may reside. “Exposure, not punishment, is what the normal homosexual - if we can say any homosexual is normal - fears. For example, the Globe and Mail ran an article in 1955 which stated: Mainstream media helped spread this fear. If threatened with exposure, it was thought, people would do anything to avoid the humiliation of having their sexuality revealed even if it meant betraying Gay men, lesbians and bisexuals were therefore considered easy targets for Soviet manipulation. That made it perfectly legal to fire someone from their job due to their sexuality. Human rights laws did not protect against discrimination based on sexual Thus, men or women who sought out opportunities to socialize together - for example, by dancing, congregating in a bar, or even attending private house parties - risked arrest. ( See Criminal Code.) It also made any activity that could potentially lead to sexual relations between two men illegal. The law targeted sex between men, making it a criminal offence. Over half of the convictions under the Official Secrets Act were a result of Gouzenko's defection.Īt the time, people who engaged in same-sex relations were widely considered to be mentally ill and a menace to society. Were therefore commonly associated with communism and spying. So it was thought that were also likely to violate political norms.
Lesbians, gay men and bisexuals did not adhere to sexual conventions of that time. This reasoning extended to anyone engaging in anything that was then considered sexually taboo. The RCMP created a new category for people who demonstrated “character weaknesses.” The reasoning was that individuals who gambled,Ĭommitted adultery or drank heavily, for example, were vulnerable to blackmail because they had something to hide. It extended itsĪnti-communist purge to individuals who were engaged in socially stigmatized behaviours. In 1948, a Cabinet directive stated that “maximum care” must be used to ensure that government employees were trustworthy.
Security Panel was tasked with identifying civil servants whose loyalties were in doubt. It was made up of a small, secret committee of top civil servants and members of the RCMP. So in 1946, it established a Security Panel. The government realized that it had no process in place to detect such It found that Canadian public servants had passed state secrets to Soviet agents. ( See Intelligence and Espionage.) In response, a royal commission was launched. In 1945, the defection of Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko revealed that Canada had been infiltrated by a network of Soviet agents in both the civil service and the military and scientific establishments. Royal Canadian Mounted Police stand at attention in parade. InĢ017, the federal government issued an official apology for its discriminatory actions and policies, along with a $145-million compensation package.Īnd removing suspected LGBTQ individuals from the federal public service and the Canadian Armed Forces. These measures were kept out of public view to prevent scandal and to keep counter-espionage operations under wraps. Many of them were fired, demoted or forced to resign - even if they had no access to security information. These characterizations were justified by arguments that people who engaged in same-sex relations suffered fromĪ “character weakness” and had something to hide because their sexuality was considered a taboo and, under certain circumstances, was illegal. They were cast as social and political subversives and seen as targets for blackmail by communist regimes seeking classified information. Between the 1950s and the 1990s, the Canadian government responded to national security concerns generated by Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union by spying on, exposingĪnd removing suspected LGBTQ individuals from the federal public service and the Canadian Armed Forces.