‘We are important, and the queer people that fought for Canada are important’
Private Martine Roy was only 20 years old in 1984 when she was arrested, interrogated and dismissed from the Canadian Armed Forces for being what was then termed a “sexual deviant.”
Roy was one of the lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit that led to a $145-million settlement and a 2017 federal apology for decades of discrimination against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. While she was allowed to finish her course and move to the now-closed National Defence Medical Centre in Ottawa, she was arrested a second time and discharged in December 1984.
She said the trauma went so deep that she didn’t return to Ottawa until 2014. For years, she and others like her weren’t recognized as veterans at all. On Monday, under drizzly skies, Roy joined Premier François Legault and other dignitaries who gathered at a downtown square for Montreal’s Remembrance Day ceremony. She laid a wreath on behalf of LGBTQ+ veterans alongside fellow purge survivor Peggy Hayes.
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