Class Action Suit

The class action for the LGBT Purge began in the fall of 2016. This followed years of efforts from individuals, academics, and the We Demand an Apology Network seeking justice to right the wrongs that had been done to 2SLGBTQ+ members of the Canadian Armed Forces, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and federal civil service by the Government of Canada.

The latest call for “the Federal government to acknowledge the wrongs done to our community and commit to a process to make it right,” was brought forward by Egale Canada through The Just Society Report: Grossly Indecent Confronting the Legacy of State-Sponsored Discrimination Against Canada’s 2SLGBTQ+ Communities in May of 2016. And this time the government signaled they were willing to act.

To ensure the recommendations would be addressed completely and as soon as possible, class actions were filed against the Attorney General of Canada in the fall of 2016 in Ontario, Quebec, and shortly after in Nova Scotia. Negotiations with the government of Canada began immediately. The separate class actions joined forces and were refiled in March of 2017 in the Federal Court as Todd Edward Ross, Martine Roy, and Alida Satalic v Her Majesty the Queen, also known as the LGBT Purge Class Action.

On November 28, 2017, a negotiated settlement was announced. This coincided with the apology made in the House of Commons by the Prime Minister and leaders of all parties on behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians.

On June 18, 2018, after listening to the personal testimonies of many survivors, Justice Martine St-Louis ratified the final settlement agreement of the LGBT Purge Class Action in the Federal Court. The Government of Canada agreed to pay $145 million which included compensation for individuals and for reconciliation and memorialization measures.