News

By Hilary White
 
  OTTAWA, The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada,  a federal agency, has funded a study of the effects on homosexuals of the equality clause of the Canadian Constitution. Prof. Miriam Smith of Trent University was awarded a fellowship to investigate the effects of political success on the homosexual subculture.
 
  Hopes that the report will include the erosion of democratic freedoms resulting from the homosexual political agenda would be ill-founded however, since Smith is also a research associate at the University of Toronto’s Sexual Diversity Studies Centre.
 
“No one has gained more legal recognition from section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — the section devoted to equality rights — than lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Canadians,” said Smith
 
“I want to find out what difference that has made for political organizing and community development, and whether a new culture of activism has emerged as a result.”
 
  The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council has previously funded such cutting edge research as the history of the, “little understood but much maligned”, business of erotic dancing in Vancouver.
 
  Prof. Smith’s award, the Bora Laskin National Fellowship in Human Rights Research, is worth $55,000.
 
  To express concerns, contact:
  Susan Goodyear
  Media Relations Officer
  Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
  Telephone:  (613) 947-4629
  E-mail: [email protected]