Much to celebrate, but still work to be done, activists say
Crafting a political manifesto word by careful word is a peculiar way to learn French. But Ross Higgins — a gay man who moved to Montreal in 1975 — can’t imagine a better method.
“It was a terrific learning experience,” said Higgins, an archivist at the Archives Gaies du Quebec who began to learn the language by working on the manifesto with a group of Montreal LGBTQ activists in the mid-1970s. “Every word was considered.” Originally from southern Ontario, Higgins moved to Montreal to attend McGill University. Throughout his first few decades in the city, Higgins said he witnessed wave after wave of police raids, excessive force and brutality.
Last week, Montreal police chief Philippe Pichet issued the first formal apology on behalf of the city’s police department for raids that took place between the ’60s and ’90s. Many applauded the apology, but, according to Higgins, the apology hardly seems relevant if members of the community are still struggling.
When Higgins arrived in Montreal in 1975, there was notably less for the LGBTQ community to celebrate. LGBTQ rights hardly existed in Canadian law, and police raids in the city were becoming increasingly brutal.
“In the sauna raids, they broke down the doors rather than asking for keys just to be as violent as possible,” Higgins said. At the 1977 Truxx raid, police — carrying machine guns — arrested more than 140 patrons, physically dragged them out of the bar and detained them in cramped cells with “appalling conditions,” Higgins said.
The increased arrests, violence and brutality in Montreal at the time, Higgins said, were part of the Montreal police department’s strategy to “clean up” what they saw as dangerous radical groups.
Higgins said the crackdown motivated the LGBTQ community to fight back. After the Truxx raid, 2,000 people took to the streets to protest against the police.
The manifesto Higgins worked on as he was first learning French was part of that fight. It was a document written by Group homosexuelle d’action politique. Its purpose was to help stop the violence experienced by the LGBTQ community and to advocate for their rights.
“I was part of a group of people who were determined to organize,” Higgins said.
The protests grew into united organization and relentless advocacy, and Montreal’s Gay Village grew into the colourful and proud space that it is today. Canada has now adopted some of the most progressive LGBTQ rights laws in the world.
Despite many advances, Higgins encourages people to continue to take action against injustices within the community.
“We’ve now gone into a celebratory mode,” he said, “but there are still a lot of people with issues.”
Jean- Sébastien Boudreault, the vice-president of Montreal Pride, which organized the Canada Pride parade this year, agrees with Higgins — there are still issues that need to be solved.
“Until we have achieved all of the demands of the LGBTQ community, we need to keep pushing,” he said, adding that fighting for more protective laws for transgender people, especially migrants, is among the ways Pride needs to move forward with legal advocacy.
Boudreault also insisted that every individual — police officers, LGBTQ allies and members of the LGBTQ community — should work to understand how people of colour, Indigenous people, transgender people and other marginalized groups need more respect, protection and support in order to access the same rights as everyone else.
Boudreault said the city’s apology and policy plans show that Montreal is moving toward ensuring groups within its LGBTQ community receive the support, respect and protection they have been advocating for.
Marie-Ève Baron, a trans woman on Montreal Pride’s board, agrees.
“I’m so happy,” Baron said, explaining that the gender plurality plan Mayor Denis Coderre announced following the official apology will help protect transgender people from workplace harassment and discrimination.
The planned policy will include a code of ethics to make sure the city uses respectful vocabulary and that Montrealers have access to gender-neutral bathrooms, among other basic accommodations.
“We’ve come a long way in the past 40 years, we have lots to celebrate” Boudreault said. “But if we stop there, it means nothing.”
Boudreault said the community needs to work collectively to strike a balance between celebration and political advocacy.