With the first North American OutGames under its belt, Calgary has contributed to the ever-growing number of firsts for the GLBT community in Canada. Some would even go so far as to say that our ship has arrived. With such achievements taking place, it is hard to imagine how homosexuality was a criminal offence only forty years ago. In fact, it is hard to imagine a Canada without including the gay community as part of its celebrated diversity. The reason why our past appears to be so different from the present is the direct result of living in the era of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

On April 17th the Charter celebrated it 25th anniversary. Like anything that is twenty-five, the Charter holds a history full of growing pains and questionable moments, but it also allowed for some very important moments that have propelled the rights of the gay community. And although there is a certain beauty in witnessing the closing of the gap between the gay and straight cultures, there is also the need to recognize the path that has brought emancipation.

In the early 1980s gay rights in Canada were still few and far between.  On paper, rights primarily belonged to heterosexual sections of society. However, buried within the legalese of the Charter lay two sections, sec.1 and sec.15, which would eventually prove to be the key elements to achieving equality for queers.  Sec.1 of the Charter is considered to be the judicial override. The judicial override provides the judiciary the right to overturn any law it deems as unconstitutional. Giving judges this power was the first foot in the door toward achieving gay rights. Judges could be seen as more sympathetic toward the gay rights struggle as they would be more familiar with the law not subject to the election polls. It was now up to gay lobbyists like that of EGALE to prove that the rights of gay people were something that needed to be included in the Charter.

Within a ten-year period from the adoption of sec.15, the equality clause, a number of cases would reach the Supreme Court of Canada. Cases like that of Mossop v. Canada, and Egan v. Canada would focus on the issue of spousal benefits, which gay rights lobbyists would use sec.1 of the Charter to build precedence in the matter of gay rights. The implications of these cases were far reaching, for if the court decided that same sex couples were eligible for spousal benefits it would implicitly recognize the validity of such relationships as if they were like a marriage. This strategy may sound like putting the cart before the horse, and it was, but it worked and the Supreme Court accepted the reasoning that same sex was analogous with the characteristics of sec.15.

The importance of sexual orientation being considered analogous with sec.15 of the Charter should never be underestimated. Sec.15 provides the necessary backdrop from which most other gay rights have been achieved. Under section 15 of the Charter, "Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the rights to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination."

Moving on, it was right here in Alberta where the Charter would be of good use again. The case of Vriend v. Alberta was the next crucial case for the gay rights movement. Delwin Vriend had been fired from his teaching job at Kings College in Edmonton based on his sexual orientation. After an unsuccessful appeal to the Alberta human rights commission Vriend ended up in at the Supreme Court in Vriend v. Alberta. The court came to the conclusion that the Alberta Human Rights Act violated the Charter by purposely not including sexual orientation, and should be remedied by including same sex in the Act. In retrospect, it was only because of the Charter that Delwin Vriend and every other gay person in Alberta could now be protected in the same way as any heterosexual Albertan was.

Having established more rights for our community, it was now time for gay lobbyists to take the Charter tennis match into the twenty-first century, and the next level, by serving an ace i.e. the legalization of gay marriage.  However, the tennis match quickly turned into an exhibition of dominos knocking each other down. Being fully aware of the power of the Charter, and instead of putting up lengthy and expensive court battles, most provinces took it upon themselves to start to legalize gay marriage.

With the provinces being proactive on gay marriage, the federal government knew it had to address the issue of gay marriage.  Again it would be the Charter that would give guidance to how this decision would play out. The issue of gay marriage was still quite sensitive in 2004 when the government would approach the Supreme Court with a reference question. The government wanted to know ahead of time what the court would say. Did the definition of marriage between one man and one woman violate the Charter? The court came beach with an answer of yes. The Supreme Court placed this sensitive issue back into the hands of our legislators who passed Bill C-38 158-153 on June 28th, 2005.  Although it was the politicians who would give us the legal right to marry our loved ones, it was the accumulation of rights gained under the Charter that would be the back up support for such politicians to vote in favor of gay marriage.

There are still legal barriers that the gay community faces. But for the most part being gay does not mean that you must be a victim of violence or discrimination, but rather, a person who can get married, have a successful career and even openly participate in large events like the recent North American OutGames. We can attribute all of these rights to the Charter, and those who have used it in our favor. We must never become apathetic with our Charter. Instead, we should celebrate its first twenty-five years with a continued allegiance, holding true to the vision of its father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who aptly said, "Power only tires those who don’t exercise it."