LGBTQ activists in Caribbean ask Canada for support, not salvation
OTTAWA — Canada should remember that as it promotes LGBTQ rights on the world stage, it should also listen to — and support — those fighting on the ground.
This was the message that Jason Jones, from Trinidad and Tobago, and Nigel Mathlin, from Grenada, brought to a meeting with officials at Global Affairs Canada this week, as they shared their views on how the Liberal government could support them and other LGBTQ activists in the Caribbean region.
“We don’t want anybody to rush in and make mistakes,” said Maurice Tomlinson, a Toronto-based senior policy adviser with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, who set up the meeting in Ottawa and is also fighting anti-homosexuality laws in his home country of Jamaica.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to advance the rights of LGBTQ people internationally, a theme he raised in his speech last November at the summit of la Francophonie, where many in the audience represented countries where sexual acts between same-sex couples are illegal.