Amending the Ontario Human Rights Code
CGRO Ontario Human Rights Code demonstration in 1976
Origins of CLGRO
In the late 1960’s, Pierre Trudeau’s famous "no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation" statement and gross indecency arrests gained the attention of the public.1 Simultaneously, the gay liberation movement started to sweep across Canada. Communities in larger towns and cities established LGBTQ+ organizations, resulting in a lack of centralized organization on a provincial or national level. Eleven organizations joined to connect and support LGBTQ+ groups across Ontario, forming the Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario (CGRO) in 1975.
Within a month of CGRO’s foundation, John Damien, a steward for the Ontario Racing Commission was fired solely because of his sexual orientation. Along with their determination to include sexual orientation in the Human Rights Code, CGRO started a campaign to reinstate John Damien. By September of 1975, the organization submitted their first legislative brief, The Homosexual Minority in Ontario, to parliament. In October of the same year, CGRO’s Committee to Defend John Damien met with the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) to discuss the wrongful termination of Mr. Damien. Chairman of the OHRC, Dr. Thomas Symons ruled that “sex” as a protected class did not extend to include “sexual orientation,” but rather meant “male” or “female.”2 As a result, CGRO doubled down on their governmental lobbying, demonstrations, and rallying for legal protection in the Code.
CGRO Rally Flyer from 1977
1977 Provincial Election
After just two years, CGRO had almost doubled in size and held two province-wide conferences to brainstorm election and legislative strategies. The coalition saw the upcoming 1977 election as a chance to push for amending the Human Rights Code, and adopted the campaign slogan, “Vote for Gay Rights, Vote Against the Tories.” Using a similar strategy, a CGRO rally at City Hall to “Demonstrate for Gay Rights” and “Demonstrate Against the Tories” garnered some media attention and recognition from the OHRC.
Within a month, a Gallup poll surveyed the country and published a report that stated the majority (52%) of Canadians were in favour of legislation preventing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.3 Shortly thereafter, the OHRC—under the same Chairman who denied John Damien legal rights—published Life Together: A Report on Human Rights in Ontario, in which they recommended the addition of sexual orientation to the Code.4
The OHRC's Life Together: A Report on Human Rights in Ontario
Conservative Backlash
As the gay rights movement was growing in momentum and visibility, so too grew a conservative anti-gay rights counter-movement. Just a week after the OHRC published Life Together, Emmanuel Jaques, a 12 year old boy, was killed and found on Yonge Street “strip,” an area known for active sex work and its close proximity to the historic queer neighborhood of Church and Wellesley. The media pounced on the opportunity to associate the death of Jaques with sexual deviancy, namely, the entire queer community of Toronto. CGRO coordinator Tom Warner and Community Homophile Association of Toronto (CHAT) director George Hislop held a press conference urging the public and local authorities not to round up gays in the impending ‘moral purges’ of Yonge Street.5
Within the next year, American conservative Anita Bryant began an anti-gay moral crusade across the province, spreading harmful rhetoric that queer people were criminals, paedophiles, and dangers to children and traditional family structures.6 In response, queer organizations like CGRO organized massive demonstrations against Bryant. Similarly, CGRO released their second legal brief to the Ontario legislature, Discrimination and the Homosexual Minority, which included the wrongful termination of John Damien, other cases of queer employment and housing discrimination, the harm done to the queer community by Anita Bryant, and the OHRC Life Together recommendation.
George Hislop (CHAT) and Tom Warner (CGRO) face a hostile press corps
1981 CGRO Gay Freedom Rally Poster
Press and the Police
By 1980, clashes between the gay liberation and conservative counter-movements grew even more drastic. CGRO’s lobbying attempts were met with yet another legislative exclusion of sexual orientation during an amendment to the Ontario Human Rights Code. Toronto mayor John Sewell who spoke in favour of the LGBTQ+ community during the highly publicized The Body Politic trial and endorsed the political campaign of CHAT’s George Hislop was not reelected. Instead, Art Eggleton, who was openly against “San Francisco-style gay power politics,” won, aided by members of the Toronto Police and organizations like the League Against Homosexuals.7
Under Eggleton’s leadership, the Toronto Metropolitan Police Force became emboldened and violently raided four bathhouses in February of 1981. The next day, thousands flooded Yonge Street in protest, demanding gay rights and an end to police raids. CGRO organizers Tom Warner, CM Donald, Jim Dougan, and Chris Bearchell decided to redirect the masses from the blockade of police at 52 Division to the Ontario Provincial government.8 Bearchell infamously gave the speech, “They think that when they pick on us that they’re picking on the weakest. Well, they made a mistake this time! We’re going to show them just how strong we are. They can’t get away with this shit anymore! No more shit!” A month later, CGRO hosted a Gay Freedom Rally at St. Lawrence Market in response to the bath raids, reiterating the significance of the Human Rights Code and legal protections from discrimination.
Sticker with Bearchell's infamous quote ("No More Shit!") popularized after the Feb. 1981 Bathhouse raids
CGRO Bill 7 Lobbying Handout
The Final Push
The outrage surrounding the bath raids generated another wave of momentum for CGRO’s human rights campaign. A few months later, they published their third brief to the legislature, sending copies directly to MPPs. In May of 1981, CGRO led a rally to demand queer rights at Queen’s Park as yet another Human Rights Code was being debated inside the provincial legislature. The conservative government still in power pushed back, and the Ontario Human Rights Code amendment passed without mention of sexual orientation. In 1982, however, the federal government introduced the monumental Constitution Act, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 15 of the Charter guaranteed general equality and non-discrimination. Ontarian judges came to interpret the non-specific non-discriminatory nature of the Charter to include the rights of queer individuals.9 In turn, this placed a level of expectation on the provincial parliament to pass legislation in line with the courts.
By 1985, Liberals won back the majority in parliament. February of 1986 saw the introduction of Bill 7, an amendment to the Ontario Human Rights Code that was intended to bring it in agreement with the new federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms. CLGRO soon after urged Ontario MPPs to support the inclusion of sexual orientation. They lobbied intensely for the next nine months, including the publishing of their fourth and final Human Rights Code brief, and the holding of numerous press conferences at Queen’s Park. Despite significant counter-lobbying by fundamentalist and right-wing groups, Bill 7 passed in November of 1986 with the inclusion of “sexual orientation” as a protected class from discrimination.
CGRO's first brief for an OHRC amendment (1975)
CGRO's second brief for an OHRC amendment (1978)
CGRO's third brief for an OHRC amendment (1981)
CGRO's fourth and final brief for an OHRC amendment (1986)
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Hooper, Tom. “Canada is Releasing a Coin Commemorating a Myth– That Homosexuality was Decriminalized in 1969,” April 22, 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/canada-coin-1.5100177. ↩
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Nicol, Nancy, dir. Stand Together. “Civil Rights.” 2002, Intervention Video Inc.↩
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“Majority Endorse Gay Rights.” Body Politic, no. 36 (September 1977): 4.↩
- Lynch, Michael. “Life Together.” Body Politic, no. 36 (September 1977): 3.↩
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Lynch, Michael. “Media Fosters Bigotry with Murder Coverage.” Body Politic, no. 36 (September 1977): 1, 4.↩
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The Body Politic, no. 40 (February 1978).↩
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Jackson, Ed. “Whither the Gay Constituency?” Body Politic, no. 87 (October 1982): 11. ↩
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Nicol, Nancy. “Proud Lives: Chris Bearchell Tribute.” https://vimeo.com/214192486. 2:56–4:24. ↩
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Warner, Tom. Never Going Back: A History of Queer Activism in Canada. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002) pp. 192.↩