Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre is taking a step forward to make amends for decades-old mistakes.
On Friday afternoon at Montreal City Hall, he apologized to the local LGBTQ community for the way it had been treated by police.
“On behalf of the municipal administration of the city of Montreal, I offer my public apologies,” Coderre said.
“We had a tainted past in certain areas, and the best way to cure it is … to make sure that we recognize what happened.”
The mayor was offering the city’s apology to members of the LGBTQ community for police raids in gay bars throughout the 1960s and into the 1990s, where many gay people were harassed and abused by police.
The raids resulted in hundreds of arrests.
Montreal Chief of Police Philippe Pichet stood alongside Coderre during the apology.
Pichet says the force has evolved and is now working to be part of the solution.
Activists welcomed the apology but noted more needs to be done, especially when it comes to the rights of trans migrants in Quebec.
A group of trans activists staged a protest outside a Pride Montreal conference on LGBTQ rights.
They want the province to change the law.
Currently Quebec doesn’t allow transgender migrants to change their names and sex on official documents to match their identity, unless they have citizenship.
“Quebec government denies us this right,” said trans activist Dalia Tourki. “Quebec government tells us: ‘Yes, you can transition medically and socially, but you cannot transition legally.’
“This is really sad.”
Quebec’s Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée says there’s work underway to change the legislation but said it was “too premature to tell exactly the way it’ll be addressed.”
The trans activist group also wants Pride Montreal to help.
They want the organization to focus on doing more advocacy work.
Pride Montreal says it’s taking the steps to do so.
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