Egale Canada, formerly known as Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere, is the national equality rights, advocacy and lobby group for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans communities in Canada.

While Egale is based in Ottawa, it very much has a national focus. The Board is made up of Directors who represent their respective regions: one male representative and one female representative (with trans people holding the seat as the gender with which they identify). The regions are: BC/Yukon, Prairies/NWT/Nunavut (which includes Manitoba), Ontario, The National Capital Region (Ottawa/Hull), Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. I am the male Regional Director for the Prairie/NWT/Nunavut Region along with Karen Busby of Winnipeg as the female Regional Director.

Egale Canada involves itself with issues affecting the gay/lesbian/bi/trans communities that have a federal or national slant to them. However, Egale has also involved itself in provincial issues such as Sex Reassignment Surgery deregulation in Ontario because such cases potentially have a national impact.

Egale is currently heavily involved in the equal marriage issue and has spoken out strongly in favour of same-sex marriage. In fact, Egale was one of the principle groups behind the support for equal marriage movement in Canada. As such, Egale is very much interested, and involved, in the Alberta Human Rights case regarding the denial of a marriage license to Keith Purdy and Rick Kennedy and to Robert Lawrence and Ron Siegmund.

The organization has also taken a strong interest in the Goliath’s Sauna case. This involved a raid against Goliath’s Sauna-tel by the Calgary Police Service last December. This was the first such raid against a gay men’s steambath/bathhouse since the infamous series of raids in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton (1979-1981). The raids against the Toronto bathhouses resulted in 3 days of riots and demonstrations and are credited with launching the Canadian gay rights movement.

Egale has spoken out strongly against what it sees as targeting gay space and is arguing the police had no cause to raid what was, essentially, private space. The case goes to trial on November 17. Of the thirteen men charged as found-ins without lawful excuse in a common bawdy house, only one has chosen to fight the charges. The other twelve, for a variety of reasons, chose to opt for Alternative Measures. The owners, management and staff of Goliath’s were charged as keepers of a common bawdy house.

The argument being used by Egale, and by defence in this case, is that the section of the Criminal Code under which the men charged as found-ins and the staff of the Goliath’s were charged deals with indecency and that what was alleged to be occurring at Goliath’s was not indecent (indecency, by the way, is not defined in Criminal Code – what constitutes indecency is left to the discretion of the investigating officers).

The sections that deal with ‘common bawdy houses’ are divided into two sections: One section deals with "any place resorted to for the purposes of prostitution" (which is not at issue here at all) and the other deals with "any place resorted to for the purposes of committing acts of indecency."

Egale is the only national voice speaking out, and defending, the equality rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, trans people (both transgendered and transsexual) and our families. For more information on Egale log on to www.egale.ca or contact me as the Regional Director for the Prairie/NWT/Nunavut Region at stephenlock@egale.ca

Related Articles

Contributor Stephen Lock

Locale Calgary

Topic Politics | EGALE