When Michelle Douglas was fired from her job in the Canadian Armed Forces because of her sexual orientation, she never expected that she should be welcomed back on a military base with open arms.
However, that is what happened Saturday at 15 Wing Moose Jaw as Douglas and Wayne Davis visited the city to raise awareness about the LGBT purge from the civil service during the Cold War and screen a documentary by Sarah Fodey called The Fruit Machine about that era of Canadian history.
“I can tell you directly that there is very high-level support from the Canadian Armed Forces for the work that we’re doing here in Moose Jaw,” Douglas said. “Rear-Admiral Jennifer Bennett has been personally involved in supporting an enhanced outreach initiative including this trip to Saskatchewan. That’s why today we’re particularly honoured to be greeted by the Wing Commander (Col. Denis O'Reilly) and the Base Chief Warrant Officer (John Hall). It’s the kind of warm welcome that, frankly, I didn’t expect that we would have, but I’m delighted that they’re going to be there and it says a lot.”
A class action lawsuit was launched by members of the RCMP, Military and public service who experienced, to one degree or another, discrimination between 1955 and 1996. The survivors of the LGBT purge reached a settlement with the federal government in June 2018 with up to $110 million set aside for the payment of damages to LGBT purge victims.
Douglas and Davis are both board members for the non-profit LGBT Purge Fund and came to Saskatchewan to raise awareness about the fund which is nearing its April 25, 2019 deadline for people to apply for compensation.
“We thought it was important to make a trip here to do as much as we could to encourage people to be aware of this class action settlement and to consider applying for it,” Douglas said. “Saskatchewan is our first stop and one of the reasons we’ve come here quite deliberately is because our information is such that those applying for compensation to this fund from Saskatchewan is quite low.”
Davis and Douglas were both victims of the LGBT purge. Davis joined the RCMP in 1967 and attained the rank of Staff-Sergeant in his 18-year career before he was forced out.
Douglas joined the Canadian Forces in 1986 and worked in the Military Police branch. She said that “the family business is public service.” Her father, who is originally from Gull Lake, spent 35 years in the federal public service.
“I was always compelled by the idea of service and serving my country,” Douglas said. “I loved my service in the Canadian Armed Forces. It was what I was looking for. I was very good at it and I worked very hard to be an excellent officer. I learned a great deal. I felt empowered and very motivated by the work I was doing, but that all came crashing down and it was just so unfortunate. I was the top candidate in every military course I took. I was on a track to be advancing well in my career, but it just didn’t matter to them. It was only my sexual orientation that mattered to them. They fired me for being ‘not advantageously employable due to homosexuality.’”
In response, she mounted a landmark legal challenge and in doing so the policy that led to her dismissal formally ended in the Armed Forces in October 1992 as the government settled the case.
“It’s been a long journey for me. I now have the role of being a leader as part of this effort that’s trying to reach out to all Canadians to tell them about this period in time, to reflect on some of my own journey and to be a support and to encourage those who experienced the purge,” said Douglas who was the founding president of the Foundation for Equal Families and is the chair of the Canadian board of directors for WE Charity. “I’m also working with a team of people who are calling on the leadership of the military, RCMP and public service to really put solid practices in place around training to give meaning to the words diversity and inclusion. Not just notions of those concepts, but practically take a leadership role there.”
Douglas said that she has seen tremendous progress in the work environment for the military, RCMP and public service since she was fired back in 1989.
“The progress that we’ve made actually puts Canada at the front of most countries in the world in this regard,” she said. “People are treated with dignity, respect and their identity, their gender expression and identity is respected. So I’ve seen tremendous change.”
That said, it’s still important to know the history of the past. She is proud to have been part of The Fruit Machine documentary and to be able to bring it to 15 Wing. The title comes from the name of the test devised by the Canadian government to determine a person’s sexuality by analyzing the dilation of the pupils of the subject when they were shown pornographic images of people of the same sex.
“This is an important documentary that has been produced,” Douglas said. “As a cast member in the documentary, and knowing so many of the others who are in the movie so well now, we’re deeply honoured to be in it. We feel the film really captures the history, the emotion and the scars that emerged from this period. It’s quite a profound and at time funny, but often sad film that we hope as many people can see as possible. It’s an incredible educational tool.”
Anyone who has been affected by the LGBT purge can still apply for compensation by visiting LGBTpurgesettlement.com.
“In many cases, the possible levels of settlement are quite significant,” Douglas said. “If family members of those who are no longer with us wish to apply, they may also be eligible — while not for financial compensation — but for other measures like letters of apology or things of that nature.”
