Gay rights not on agenda for PM, Uganda president

African leader has condemned sexually diverse

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the president of Uganda in New York last fall, LGBTQ rights were not on the agenda — despite the African leader’s vocal support for legislation that would have made homosexuality punishable by life in prison.

Discussion of human rights, in general, appeared generally absent from the meeting, as Trudeau complimented President Yoweri Museveni’s support for refugees in the region, and discussed how best to expand economic relations between the two countries.

Over the course of the 20-minute meeting with Museveni, which took place during September’s United Nations General Assembly, “the two leaders discussed Canada-uganda bilateral relations and other areas of mutual interest, including human rights, the refugee situation in sub-saharan Africa, and regional security,” according to an official readout. Prime Minister Trudeau’s official Twitter account published a photo of the meeting.

Briefing material and talking points prepared for the meeting, obtained by the National Post through the Access to Information Act, contains scant mention of the dire situation faced by LGBTQ minorities in Uganda.

Asked directly in April whether Trudeau brought up LGBTQ rights, a spokesperson with the prime minister’s office refused to answer, instead providing just the one-sentence readout of the meeting. When pressed again this week, the spokesperson insisted the talking points prepared for the meeting were not exhaustive, and highlighted public speeches given by Trudeau regarding LGBTQ rights, insisting he “never shies away” from raising the issue, but again refused to comment on what was discussed at the meeting.

Trudeau’s apparent silence in the meeting represents a significant departure from the approach taken by his predecessor, Stephen Harper.

In 2014, Museveni signed legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment despite stern warnings from the West. An earlier version of the bill had included the possibility of capital punishment. Under Harper, Canada was one of the most vocal critics of the legislation, with then-foreign affairs minister John Baird urging Uganda to back down on its plans and echoing a warning from U.S. President Barack Obama that aid to the east African country would be contingent on them doing so. Ottawa even funded local LGBTQ activism and legal training in Uganda to fight the legislation.

A Ugandan court overturned the legislation in 2015 on constitutional grounds, but the situation for the country’s LGBTQ citizens remains dire, especially as Museveni has remained steadfast in his belief that homosexuality is a “deviation,” as he told Der Spiegel in a 2016 interview.

A 2018 Human Rights Watch report on the country was highly critical of Museveni’s government, finding that he “continues to violate free association, expression, and assembly rights.” The report notes that new laws have taken aim at NGOS which advocate LGBTQ acceptance, that the government has openly threatened organizers of a pride parade in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and that the government continues to perform anal examination of those who engage in same-sex activities, which the report calls a “form of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that may constitute torture.” As recently as last month, a spate of members of the Ugandan Parliament stood to denounce homosexuality, with one member announcing: “That bill should come back. And we should pass it.”

While Trudeau has made a particular point of talking about the rights of minorities abroad, including sexual minorities, his government has also prioritized building positive relations with other countries, sometimes irrespective of their record on human rights. His government has dropped sanctions on authoritarian Belarus and is in the midst of a diplomatic reset with Iran.

Trudeau’s penchant for raising LGBTQ rights earned him the 2018 Egale Canada Leadership Award, that group announced Wednesday, in recognition of his status as “an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ2S rights in Canada and around the world.” He’ll be presented with the award later in May.

The meeting between Trudeau and Museveni was the culmination of a series of diplomatic overtures between Ottawa and Kampala. Defence minister Harjit Sajjan visited the Ugandan capital in 2016, while immigration minister Ahmed Hussen met with Museveni in London in the spring of 2017.

Talking points the prime minister’s office prepared for the meeting with Museveni show that Trudeau expected to talk about refugees and the possibility of further Uganda-Canada trade, but no legible portions of the agenda mention human rights.

One of the “priority objectives” for Trudeau in the meeting was to “recognize Uganda’s generosity in hosting the largest number of refugees (notably South Sudanese) in Africa,” the documents show. Elsewhere, Trudeau’s script suggested he commend Museveni’s “progressive model in responding to the needs of these vulnerable people.”

Trudeau also expressed that Canada would be “interested in expanding commercial ties — potential areas include responsible development in oil and investment in infrastructure.”

Some sections of the documents have been redacted, with the department concluding that the redacted information could be “injurious to the conduct of international affairs” or harmful to Canadian security.

A background document on the political situation in Uganda does make mention of Uganda’s effort to further criminalize homosexuality, although only briefly, while the biography of Museveni prepared for Trudeau also mentions that he won a fifth term in office in an election “decried by opposition and rights groups as undemocratic.” Neither of those issues were flagged as issues to bring up during the meeting, however.

The document adds that, should Museveni have brought up the possibility of a state visit to Canada, Trudeau was instructed to respond: “Thank you for your interest. My officials will explore the possibility.”