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In 1967, the Liberal government under the leadership of Lester B. Pearson introduced the omnibus bill. This legislation proposed to revise abortion laws, legalize lotteries, and restrict gun ownership. However, the section that garnered the most attention was the one that decriminalized homosexual acts performed in private.
The omnibus bill aimed to modernize the Canadian Criminal Code to better reflect contemporary society in the 1960s.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then minister of justice and attorney general, famously defended the bill, stating, “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation. What’s done in private between adults doesn’t concern the Criminal Code.”
And yet, right up until the 1990s, 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians faced systemic discrimination in the form of a purge from the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP, and the federal public service. Thousands of careers were destroyed, and the harassment suffered by victims of the purge led to lifelong emotional and psychological trauma.
Currently, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is hosting an exhibit that examines Canada’s LGBT Purge. Titled Love in a Dangerous Time, this exhibit sheds light on a dark chapter of our nation’s history—one that is well documented yet remains largely unknown.
Beyond government policies and past injustices, Love in a Dangerous Time is a story of courage and perseverance. It is about loss and triumph. Most importantly, it is about individuals—those who endured discrimination and who fought against deeply entrenched biases.
One highlight of the exhibit is The Regulation of Desire, a remarkable 10-minute short film written and directed by Winnipeg filmmaker Noam Gonick. The film explores aspects of the purge through contemporary dance, performed by members of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
When asked to collaborate on the exhibit, Gonick was well aware of the impact of the LGBT Purge on Canadian society. “The purge really looks a lot at employment, and it is now thought of as the largest workplace employment discrimination case in Canadian history,” he explains.
The purge was eventually challenged, culminating in a class-action lawsuit to compensate those affected. One of the most vocal advocates for justice was Michelle Douglas, a proud member of the Canadian Armed Forces. As Gonick notes, “Michelle decided… she’s not going to take this lying down. She’s going to fight back. So they purged the wrong person.”
In the end, the Canadian government paid $145 million in compensation, with $15 million allocated for recognition and memorialization through exhibits and monuments administered by the LGBT Purge Fund.
The 10-minute ballet The Regulation of Desire takes its name from a book Gonick discovered in university. “I studied with a great sociologist in film school named Gary Kinsman, and he wrote a book called The Regulation of Desire … it was really the first book that examined this Canadian governmental purge and suppression of queer people.”
The ballet conveys the stories, emotions, and realities of the LGBT Purge. “For me, it was all about the hiddenness of the history and the way that this history is now only slowly starting to be revealed,” Gonick explains.
He highlights one of the purge’s tragic stories depicted in his ballet: “You have Ambassador John Watkins, a retired Canadian diplomat who had served in Moscow. He was dragged into an interrogation and died while two RCMP officers were questioning him in a motel.”
Gonick designed The Regulation of Desire to be an immersive experience, surrounding the audience with performance and visual effects to deepen their connection to the stories. “Dance is about the body, and your body as a viewer… I wanted there to be this kind of visceral, tactile quality to it all,” he says.
His collaboration with choreographer Freya Björg Olafson and composer Andy Rudolph was an organic and creative process. However, Gonick acknowledges the importance of stepping back: “It was a bit about letting go and letting the geniuses work on their own.”
Gonick hopes that visitors to Love in a Dangerous Time and The Regulation of Desire will leave transformed by the experience. “I hope they leave the museum different than when they came in,” he says.
Love in a Dangerous Time and its accompanying film installation provide a much-needed examination of a neglected part of Canada’s recent history.
The exhibit is on display at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights until early 2026.