OTTAWA, November 15, 2021

The Canadian and international arts and design community has stepped forward with five proposals for the LGBTQ2+ National Monument. Today, the Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage, and the Honourable Marci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, along with project proponent the LGBT Purge Fund, revealed the shortlisted teams’ designs for this new national monument that will be located in downtown Ottawa.

LGBTQ2+ communities and people across Canada have until November 28, 2021, to share their thoughts on the proposed designs through an online survey. The jury will consider the survey responses as part of the process of selecting the winning design. The jury includes experts in the fields of visual arts, landscape architecture, architecture and urban design, as well as LGBT Purge survivors, representatives from key stakeholder groups and subject-matter specialists.

The LGBTQ2+ National Monument will tell the story of generations of LGBTQ2+ people in Canada who have been persecuted, abused, dismissed and marginalized because of who they love and how they identify. It will acknowledge historic discrimination experienced by LGBTQ2+ communities and the abuse perpetrated by the Canadian state, including during the LGBT Purge. While recognizing enduring injury and injustice, the LGBTQ2+ National Monument will educate, memorialize, celebrate and inspire diversity and inclusion in Canadian society. It will be guided by principles of inclusion, Indigeneity, visibility and timelessness.

The LGBT Purge refers to the period when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian federal public service were systematically discriminated against, harassed and often fired as a matter of policy and sanctioned practice, due to their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Over time, survivors and their allies worked hard to secure apologies, gain recognition, win compensation and change Canadian law. A ground-breaking legal settlement was reached in 2018. Canada was the first country in the world to provide substantial compensation for the harm inflicted on its own people through decades of state-sponsored discrimination.

The LGBT Purge Fund is a not-for-profit corporation established in 2018 to manage memorialization and reconciliation projects mandated by the settlement. The Fund is responsible for building an LGBTQ2+ National Monument that will “memorialize the historical discrimination against LGBTQ2+ people in Canada, including with respect to the LGBT Purge.” As the project proponent, the LGBT Purge Fund is providing $8 million for the project and is working with Canadian Heritage and the National Capital Commission to ensure the Monument meets the objectives of the settlement agreement and embodies the vision developed with Purge survivors and Canada’s wider LGBTQ2+ community.