The Hamilton Spectator

Liberal MP Boissonnau­lt: ‘amazing’ how far we have come on LGBTQ2 rights

- JOANNA SMITH

Liberal MP Randy Boissonnau­lt said his time at the University of Oxford taught him the importance of staying on top of a busy schedule.

There as a Rhodes Scholar studying philosophy, politics and economics, Boissonnau­lt also took up German and Spanish, rowing and ice hockey — all while making sure to be far away from his college, Corpus Christi, one evening a week.

That was the night a campus pride group held its meetings, and Boissonnau­lt, who was in the closet at the time, found it too close for comfort.

“I thought if I came out, I wouldn’t have any career prospects,” Boissonnau­lt, 46, said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“I wouldn’t be loved. I would lose my family and my friends and it would be a big, dark, scary hole.”

Coming home to Canada in 1996, it was as if the world was shifting, he recalled. There were gay role models in politics and popular culture. Soon, benefits were extended to same-sex couples and then, eventually, marriage was too.

“To see all the change that has happened in my lifetime and to see how far we’ve come as a country and as a people is really amazing,” said Boissonnau­lt, who was elected to represent the riding of Edmonton Centre in 2015.

There is more work to do, both at home and abroad.

As the special adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on LGBTQ2 issues, Boissonnau­lt has been working with advocacy groups to promote equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgende­r, queer and two-spirited people — a term used broadly to describe indigenous people who identify as part of the community.

Boissonnau­lt is a member of the Liberal indigenous caucus and identifies as “non-status adoptive Cree,” a heritage traced back to a maternal great-grandmothe­r in the family that adopted him.

That role of special adviser, which Boissonnau­lt took on last November, now also has some support.

The 2017 federal budget committed $3.6 million over three years to set up and support an LGBTQ2 secretaria­t within the Privy Council Office. One part of that job is to better co-ordinate the machinery of government so that policies are not blind to sexual orientatio­n and gender diversity.

Boissonnau­lt said he saw that happen when Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced last year the federal government had revamped a program that covers up to 50 per cent of the costs for places of worship, schools and community centres to beef up their security in response to real or anticipate­d threats.

Boissonnau­lt said when the leader of a pride centre asked him whether they would be eligible for the funding, he had to go and check with Goodale’s office to find out that yes, they would be.

“Because we didn’t say LGBTQ2 communitie­s in there, the community didn’t know,” said Boissonnau­lt, who is also a member of the Liberal indigenous caucus, tracing his identity back to a maternal great-grandmothe­r in the family that adopted him.

He said viewing policy through this lens has led to other recent decisions, such as expanding a federal tax credit for fertility-related medical expenses to include those who rely on the use of reproducti­ve technology to have families but are not necessaril­y considered medically infertile, such as same-sex couples.

As he looks to the future, Boissonnau­lt is also being reminded of the past: he has also been tasked with exploring an apology to LGBTQ2 people whose lives and careers were harmed by discrimina­tory government policies over the decades.

That was the top recommenda­tion in a report from the Egale Canada Human Rights Trust last June, and nearly a year later, advocates have been expressing frustratio­n with the slow pace. Asked for an update, Boissonnau­lt said only that he continues to listen and learn.

“We have to get this right for the Canadian context and to make sure that once we do have an apology, that it is broadly accepted by members of the community,” he said.

 ?? SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS ?? Randy Boissonnau­lt, member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS Randy Boissonnau­lt, member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

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