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Lawsuit could be launched over military’s former gay policy

Lawyer says Canada’s former discrimination is grounds for class-action

A high-profile Halifax lawyer says the federal government should have to pay for the rampant discrimination targeted at homosexuals in the military through the 1980s and 1990s. Until 1992 it was policy for Canadian Forces investigators to root out homosexuals and have them fired as potential security risks. John McKiggan, the lawyer who helped launched lawsuits for the victims of Native residential schools and orchestrated the $13 million sexual abuse settlement from the Roman Catholic diocese of Nova Scotia, says the ten year period between the adoption of the charter in 1982 and the cancellation of the policy provides a window of legal responsibility that is ripe for class-action. “When issues like this come up that have been ignored for a very long time, the first inclination is to ignore it,” he said. “But now that it’s been outed, so to speak, the Canadian government is going to be forced to address the decisions that were made by the military, and come up with an appropriate response.”

CBC News

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