A pro-homosexual conference organized by Canada’s Trudeau Foundation brought together last week international scholars and activists, one of whom labeled the traditional family consisting of a man and a woman married for life as “radical.”
“Straight families are more radical than people realize,” McGill law professor Robert Leckey — who is ‘married’ to Venezuala dancer José Navas — told attendees at the conference, which took place in Montreal.
“Many of us have many different living partners. So why do we keep adhering to a model [of marriage] that doesn’t work?” he added.
The two-day conference, titled “Imagining the Future of LGBTQ Rights,” featured nine public panel discussions on the topic of the “continuing struggle for LGBTQ human rights.”
“The recognition of LGBTQ rights is often led by nongovernmental organizations and states can learn a lot from these international initiatives,” stated Morris Rosenberg, president and chief executive officer of the Trudeau Foundation, in a press release about the event. “This unique seminar will set the tone for a better understanding of LGBTQ communities around the world.”
The conference was held October 6-7 at Concordia University in collaboration with the Centre Jacques Cartier.
Notable participants included former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Charron and former member of the European Parliament and Dutch lesbian activist Joke Sweibel.
The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, established in 2001 in honor of the former Canadian prime minister by the same name, states on its website that it is an “independent and non-partisan charity.”
Pierre Trudeau, who was baptized as a Catholic and described himself as such, is held by the country’s life and family leaders as most responsible for ramming through the infamous 1969 omnibus Bill C-150 that decriminalized homosexuality and allowed for abortion and contraception.
Trudeau defended the bill at that time, allegedly telling reporters that “there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation,” adding that “what's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code.”
The Trudeau Foundation describes itself as a “hub for research” that grants doctoral scholarships, awards fellowships, appoints mentors, and holds public events to encourage “reflection and action” in the areas of “human rights and dignity, responsible citizenship, Canada’s role in the world, and people and their natural environment.”
In 2002, the Government of Canada, with the unanimous support of the House of Commons endowed the Foundation with a donation of $125 million. The Foundation is also supported by private donations.
Jennifer Petrela, director of the Trudeau Foundation’s public interaction program, told homosexual news service Xtra that the conference will only be deemed successful if people put into action what they have heard.
“[Success will be measured by] the participants networking with each other and returning home to their countries, where they will use these contacts to help improve the lives of LGBTQ people,” she said.
