Erase dishonourable discharges for sexual orientation: Garrison
Hundreds of members of the Canadian Armed Forces dishonourably discharged due to their sexual orientation need immediate redress after waiting nearly 25 years, says the MP for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke.
Randall Garrison, NDP critic for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, said the stigma faced by this community deserves action after his motion in Defence Committee on Tuesday in Ottawa received unanimous approval.
The motion, supported by a Liberal majority among 12 members, called on Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan to give permission to the Military Ombudsman to take steps to erase the dishonourable discharges.
Sajjan was not in the House of Commons, Garrison told the Times Colonist, but his parliamentary secretary, MP John McKay, responded in an “obscure” way that Garrison said he views as “stalling.”
McKay said the issue would be dealt with by the government “in the fullness of time,” but Garrison said the injustice should be dealt with on its own in a simple fashion by the ombudsman, who is available to deal with such issues.
“There are 800 to 1,000 people who are in these categories and have been left hanging,” Garrison said.
Some served for a long time and face stigma about why they left the military. Prior to 1992, people were dishonourably discharged if it was learned that they were not heterosexual. After that, gays and lesbians were allowed to serve.
That means unfair discharges should have been remedied long ago, Garrison said.
The NDP raised the issue about two years ago and “with a new government, we expected more sympathy,” he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau referred in August to a coming apology to the LGBTQ community on many levels, and Garrison said perhaps the dishonourable discharges will be wrapped into that. But rather than wait, he’d like the injustice corrected to demonstrate that the Canadian Forces are committed to the acceptance of diversity.
“We need to fix gaps in legislation and work to correct past wrongs in order to put an end to homophobia and transphobia once and for all,” he said in a statement.
The discharges resulted in “stigma and severely limited career opportunities as a result.”
The committee will write to Sajjan in the next week, and “the minister has promised a quick answer,” Garrison said.