Canada's First Openly Gay Judge on the Most Memorable Same-Sex Weddings He Conducted | The Walrus

Homosexuality in Canada was long treated as criminal and socially despised, with limited legal protections. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police monitored suspected gay individuals, and homosexuals were barred from government, law enforcement, and military work. Homosexuality was punishable by life imprisonment, and Everett Klippert received an indefinite life sentence as a “dangerous sex offender,” with the Supreme Court of Canada upholding his incarceration as “preventive detention.” Decriminalization occurred in 1969, alongside statements opposing state involvement in private life, but Klippert remained imprisoned until 1971. International events like the Stonewall riots helped energize gay liberation, and Quebec later added “sexual orientation” to its human rights code.

"Until I was almost thirty years old, homosexuals were a despised minority with almost no legal protections. I'm extremely fortunate to have lived through a monumental and relatively rapid evolution of legal and social reforms culminating in the legalization of same-sex marriage. And I'm even more fortunate that, during my judicial career, I had a front-row seat to some of the most historically significant developments in what many human rights lawyers refer to as "the last civil rights movement.""

"During the 1950s and '60s, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police monitored the activities of individuals suspected of being gay. Homosexuals were banned from working in government, law enforcement, and the military. Homosexuality was a criminal offence punishable by life imprisonment. The last Canadian sent to jail simply for being gay was Everett Klippert, an auto mechanic from the Northwest Territories. In 1965, he was given an indefinite life sentence as a "dangerous sex offender" even though all his sexual activities had been with consenting adults. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld his sentence in 1967, describing his incarceration as "preventive detention.""

"Homosexuality in Canada was decriminalized in 1969. Then prime minister Pierre Trudeau famously said, "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation." Despite the passage of these amendments, Klippert wasn't released from prison until 1971. The Stonewall riots of June 1969 in New York City are widely considered to have launched the gay liberation movement in North America. In 1977, Quebec became the first province in Canada to include "sexual orientation" in its human rights code, making it illegal to discriminate against gays in housing, publi"

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