Canada
COVID-19 protests in Canadian capital turn violent and anti-LGBTQ
Government sharply criticized over convoy response
As the nationwide protests against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government’s mandates on vaccinations, masks, and other preventative measures against the coronavirus pandemic enters a second week, ground zero for the so-called “Freedom” demonstrations in Ottawa’s downtown area has become so combative that residents are now in fear.
In multiple interviews with Canadian media outlets including the CBC, Ottawans say they are under siege.
“For 10 days, downtown residents have been subjected to relentless honking, choking diesel fumes from trucks parked near their homes. They’ve expressed outrage over the open display of hate symbols, and some say they’ve been subjected to racial, homophobic and transphobic slurs. Others claim they’ve been attacked for wearing masks,” the CBC reported Tuesday.
“Many residents say they’ve felt let down by all levels of government and police since the protest convoy arrived Jan. 28.”
In addition to the unceasing cataphonics of the truckers blaring horns as they continue to block most of the thoroughfares in downtown, the noise soon to be abated by a temporary injunction issued by Justice Hugh McLean during a court hearing in Ottawa Monday which is effective immediately and is meant to silence the horns at all hours for the next 10 days, wanton acts and threats of violence continue to plague the city’s residents.
Blatant acts of racism also have residents on edge.
“Being a woman of color, I felt very fearful,” said Arushana, who left her home in the ByWard Market to stay with a colleague in the Glebe last weekend. (CBC is not using her last name because she is concerned for her safety.)
After putting up with sleepless nights and fireworks being aimed at her building, one of the final straws was seeing a Confederate flag on her way home from work.
“I broke down,” she said. “As a first generation immigrant child, seeing such hatred, especially when my parents came to this country to provide me and my sister with a better opportunity and a better life … I didn’t feel safe.”
CBC reported that its journalists also heard dozens of similar stories from people via e-mail.
[Yet another wrote] she was confronted on her way to the grocery store.
“I was shoved, screamed at, called [sexist and homophobic slurs], and had three large men try to pen me in and physically block my way, because I was wearing a mask,” she wrote.
The Washington Blade spoke with a gay resident who asked to not be identified who said that he had left a Tim Hortons located on Albert Street not far from Parliament Hill when he encountered a group of trucker-protestors who immediately verbally assaulted him.
“They shoved me up against the side of the building and then snatched my toque off my head and then they saw the design on it — the gay maple leaf flag, it got ugly. One of them got in my face and said that wearing it was a desecration. Then he shoved me hard, called me a faggot and threatened to beat me. I managed to get away but I’m now at my cousins. I don’t feel safe to go back to my flat,” he told the Blade.
The protests have also gotten the backing of American anti-mask/vaccination activists including prominent anti-LGBTQ evangelicals. On his Facebook page, Franklin Graham urged Canadians to back the truckers and others:
Canada
Liberal Party wins Canadian election
Prime Minister Mark Carney railed against US tariffs, sovereignty threats
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won the country’s federal election that took place on Monday.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation notes the Liberals won 169 seats in parliament, compared to the 144 the Conservative Party won. The Liberals need 172 seats for a parliamentary majority.
Liberal Bruce Fanjoy defeated Pierre Poilievre, an anti-LGBTQ MP from Ontario who is the Conservatives’ leader, by a 50.6-46.1 percent margin.
The Liberals last month elected Carney to succeed Justin Trudeau as the country’s prime minister. Monday’s election took place against the backdrop of growing tensions with the U.S. that stem from tariffs the Trump-Vance administration has imposed against Canada, and suggestions the country should become the 51st state.
“Our strength lies in our resolve to work together,” said Carney on Tuesday in a post to his X account. “United, we will build Canada strong.”
Thank you, Canada.
Our strength lies in our resolve to work together. United, we will build Canada strong. pic.twitter.com/uN6h4LUAEP
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) April 29, 2025
Egale Canada, the country’s largest LGBTQ and intersex rights group, earlier this year announced it will not attend WorldPride and other events in the U.S. because of the Trump-Vance administration’s anti-transgender policies and “economic warfare and threats to our national sovereignty.”
“Democracy thrives when people engage, and our voices are used in a way where we can say we voted with pride,” said Egale Canada on Tuesday.
“As the new parliament takes shape, we recognize that the journey toward equity and inclusion — especially for 2SLGBTQI communities — extends far beyond election day,” added the group in its post-election statement. “The work of understanding, addressing, and acting on the issues faced by 2SLGBTQI people must be ongoing, collaborative, and grounded in human rights and lived experience.”
Egale Canada said it looks “forward to working with all members of parliament, both newly elected and returning, to help build a Canada where every person is treated with dignity, where diversity is celebrated, and where all are equal — and none are other.”
Canada’s Liberal Party on Sunday elected Mark Carney to succeed Justin Trudeau as the country’s next prime minister.
The Associated Press reported Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada, won with 85.9 percent of the vote.
Trudeau became prime minister in 2015 when he defeated then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, was Canada’s prime minister from 1968-1979 and from 1980-1984.
The younger Trudeau is the first Canadian prime minister to have marched in a Pride parade.
Canada in 2022 banned so-called conversion therapy, which Justin Trudeau described as a “hateful and harmful practice.” Justin Trudeau in 2017 also formally apologized to Canadians who suffered persecution and discrimination under the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws — including those convicted of “gross indecency” before Canada decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations — and policies.
Justin Trudeau resigned as the Liberal Party’s leader in January.
Randy Boissonnault, a gay MP who represents Edmonton Center (Alberta), previously advised Justin Trudeau on LGBTQ issues. Boissonnault on Sunday applauded the outgoing prime minister.
“It was an honor to start this journey as part of the 2015 Class of MPs that you brought to Ottawa,” said Boissonnault in a social media post. “It was a privilege to serve as your Special Advisor on LGBTQ2 issues and then in your Cabinet to see first-hand the work you did everyday for Canadians.”
Carney will take office against the backdrop of growing tensions with the U.S. that stem from tariffs the Trump-Vance administration has imposed against the country. President Donald Trump has also suggested that Canada should become the 51st state.
“There is someone who is trying to weaken our economy,” said Carney after he won the election, according to the AP. “Donald Trump, as we know, has put unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell and how we make a living. He’s attacking Canadian families, workers and businesses and we cannot let him succeed and we won’t.”
National elections must take place before Oct. 20.
Polls indicate the Conservative Party of which anti-LGBTQ MP Pierre Poilievre, who represents Carleton in Ontario, is the leader remains ahead of the Liberal Party. The gap, however, appears to have narrowed in recent weeks.
Canada
Canadian LGBTQ group cancels WorldPride participation over Trump policies
Egale Canada cites need to ‘safeguard our trans and nonbinary staff’
Egale Canada, one of Canada’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organizations, announced in a Feb. 6 statement that its members will not be attending any events in the U.S., including WorldPride set to take place in Washington from May 17-June 8, because of policies put in place by President Donald Trump.
The statement says the decision not to come to the U.S. resulted in its cancellation of plans to attend a meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women at U.N. headquarters in New York in March, at which it planned to discuss LGBTQ related issues.
“After deep consideration, we have decided not to engage in-person in this year’s Commission on the Status of Women or any other UN, OAS (Organization of American States) or global convergings, including WorldPride, taking place in the United States in the foreseeable future,” the statement says.
“This decision is foremost based on the need to safeguard our trans and nonbinary staff who would face questionable treatment at land and aviation borders to attend such convenings, and to stand in solidarity with global colleagues who are experiencing similar fear around entry to the U.S.,” the statement continues.
“It is also founded in the unique situation that has been thrust on Canadians (and citizens of other countries) regarding economic warfare and threats to our national sovereignty,” according to the statement. “We cannot in good conscience engage in a process of disentangling our organization from the U.S. goods and services (as we have recently released in a statement) and then proceed to travel to the U.S.”
The Egale Canada statement marks the first known time that an international LGBTQ rights organization has declared it will not come to the U.S. to attend WorldPride because of the controversial policies adopted by the Trump-Vance administration, which so far have included a roll back of programs and policies in support of transgender people.
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