Four months later I received the minister's reply. The following is the letter I wrote and the Defence Minister's reply:
The Honourable Peter MacKay
Minister of National Defence
Dear Sir,
My name is Robin Anderson-Forbes and I'm the publisher of Gay News Bits. Recently it came to my attention that Canadian servicemen who were 'dishonourably discharged' prior to the Canadian Forces rule on allowing homosexuals to serve in the armed forces, still have that blemish on their records and no veteran's benefits.
I stumbled across this bit of information, reading a news story at The Calgary Sun: ('MP seeks justice for gays in military').
Sir, as a former Canadian Army Reserve Military Policeman and a Canadian I find this situation quite embarrassing. I find it embarrassing that our country has not seen fit to do the right thing for our servicemen who served and fought proudly for our country. I also find it embarrassing as I often tell people that although Canada once had backward laws regarding homosexuality when it came to serving in the military, we have since allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly and it has worked out just fine.
Apparently though there's still work to be done as many servicemen still have tarnished records for a 'crime' that should have never been a crime and indeed is no longer a crime in the Canadian Forces.
I respectfully request sir that you do the right thing for our proud ex-servicemen and polish their service records and also restore veterans' benefits to them. An apology would also be in order. I realize that these are difficult things to do, however they are the right and moral thing to do. When I was on my junior leaders course in the army it was stressed that one of the great strengths of the Canadian soldier was their great sense of moral justice. I implore you sir to do something so that those are not meaningless words. Please, restore our gay servicemen's honour.
Yours sincerely,
Robin Anderson-Forbes
Dear Mr. Anderson-Forbes:
Thank you for your e-mails concerning an article that led you to believe that Canadian service members were dishonourably discharged if they were released on the basis of their sexual orientation. Please accept my apology for this delay in responding.
As you are no doubt aware, Canadian social values and legislation with respect to sexual orientation have changed considerably since the middle of the twentieth century. The same is true of Canadian Forces policies and practices, which have evolved over the years in response to these changes.
Canadian Forces personnel have always been treated in accordance with their legislated rights. When same-sex relationships were unprotected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadian Forces policies reflected that attitude. This led, in some cases, to the release of homosexual personnel. But these releases were not "dishonourable." The majority, if not all, were released under the heading "not advantageously employable." This is a category used to annotate the release documentation of personnel who left the military for administrative reasons. In these cases, the release certificate issued to the individual is annotated with the words "Honourably Released."
In rare instances, a homosexual member of the Canadian Forces may have been released as a result of a criminal conviction in civil or military court. In such a case, the release category assigned would have been "unsatisfactory conduct." For these personnel, the release certificate is annotated "Service Terminated." It is true that this is a less desirable annotation than "Honourably Released," but it was used only in the case of individuals found guilty of a criminal act and was not used, regardless of the sexual orientation of the offender, in the absence of a criminal act.
It is also necessary to understand that it is not possible to change these release categories retrospectively. The Supreme Court of Canada has been clear that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms cannot be used as a reason to revisit events, including legal and administrative decisions that occurred prior to the coming into force of the Charter.
I trust this information is of assistance, and thank you for your interest in the welfare of former service members.
Sincerely,
Peter MacKay
Minister of National Defence
I am grateful that Mr. MacKay actually took the time to look into the matter and to reply to me, even though it took awhile. I've actually written a number of emails to various members of parliament but the MND was the only one to respond; with the exception of Peter Stoffer, the MP who brought up the question in the first place.
However, there's a few things that bother me about Mr. MacKay's response.
The first, is that the minister is playing with words. In his email he says: "Canadian Forces personnel have always been treated in accordance with their legislated rights. When same-sex relationships were unprotected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadian Forces policies reflected that attitude."
Even if this statement was 100% factual, (which it isn't) it doesn't make the treatment of those service members right.
He also says: " But these releases were not 'dishonourable.' The majority, if not all, were released under the heading 'not advantageously employable.'"
Even if this statement is true, they can use any phrase or word they please, the fact remains that a gay or lesbian service member was released from service, for the sole reason of their sexual orientation. Their lives were screwed.
He also writes: "In rare instances, a homosexual member of the Canadian Forces may have been released as a result of a criminal conviction in civil or military court. In such a case, the release category assigned would have been 'unsatisfactory conduct.' For these personnel, the release certificate is annotated 'Service Terminated.'"
That may have been the case, but it still amounts to being dishonourably discharged for being a convicted homosexual. Moreover, the National Defence Act is quite clear in this regard. "Section 129 of the National Defence Act provides: 129. (1) Any act, conduct, disorder or neglect to the prejudice of good order and discipline is an offence and every person convicted thereof is liable to dismissal with disgrace from Her Majesty’s service or to less punishment."
So, call it what you will, "dismissal with disgrace", "dishonourably discharged", "Service Terminated" -- they all mean the same thing and in this instance we're referring to people who were convicted of homosexuality or a homosexual act, punished and then dismissed from the Canadian Forces.
Section 129 by the way is a "catch-all" and it would have been used when all else failed to convict and get rid of undesirables such as homosexuals. And then there's the matter of those homosexuals who were convicted and/or merely released for being "national security risks"...The only reason why they were "national security risks" is because they were homosexuals, which is no more of a risk than a married heterosexual man who decides to have an illicit affair -- both are equally subject to blackmail.
On the Matter of Veteran's Benefits...The minister didn't specifically address that subject. I suppose I could guess at the answer however, I decided to email Mr. MacKay for clarification on whether or not gays and lesbians who were discharged for the crime of being a homosexual were or are entitled to veteran's benefits.
The bottom unresolved line as far as I can see, is that as far as the Canadian government is concerned, if you were gay and discharged from the services for being gay or engaging in a gay act or because being gay meant that you were a security risk then too bad, that was a by-product of that time; you're entitled to nothing. This is a most unsatisfactory, and disappointing answer, as those men and women were not criminals. And lastly, I still think this needs to be changed.
*Note: For the purposes of this post, the URL in my email to the Calgary Sun article was hyperlinked simply as a URL. In this post I've hyperlinked the title of the article in question as the URL link was messing up the formatting of this page. The other changes to these email's is that I've obviously omitted email addresses, postal addresses, subject lines and the minister's file reference that were also included in the original copies.
Related Posts:
- One of the Boys Reviewed
- Gays in the Canadian Forces During WWII
