Canada Urged To Defend Global LGBTQ+ Rights

By Mata Press Service

As Canadians mark Pride Month, global LGBTQ+ rights groups are warning that Ottawa’s reputation as a defender of sexual and gender minorities is being tested by a rising wave of repression abroad and uncertainty over Canada’s own foreign policy direction.

At a Dignity Network Canada conference in Ottawa last week, activists, academics and government officials wrestled with a blunt question: Is Canada still prepared to lead on global LGBTQ+ rights as authoritarian governments and anti-rights movements criminalize queer communities, silence civil society groups and cut off foreign support?

The pressure comes as a new 10-year assessment of Canada’s foreign policy on LGBTIQ+ rights says Ottawa has become one of the world’s most consistent and visible champions of queer rights abroad since 2016 but warns that those gains remain fragile.

The report, Canada’s Foreign Policy on Global LGBTIQ+ Rights, was produced for Dignity Network Canada and completed in November 2025. It says Canada moved from scattered action before 2016 to a more organized foreign policy framework after 2019, with dedicated international assistance, embassy support and multilateral diplomacy.

But the report also warns that the global situation is deteriorating rapidly.

It says attacks on LGBTIQ+ rights are increasingly being used as part of wider authoritarian campaigns to weaken courts, restrict civil society, silence journalists and roll back gender equality. The report says such attacks often serve as an early warning sign of democratic backsliding.

That warning has become more urgent as several countries toughen laws against sexual and gender minorities.

Ghana’s parliament recently passed legislation that would impose prison terms of up to 10 years for people who “promote” LGBTQ+ activities. Senegal has also ratified a law doubling penalties for same-sex acts and imposing jail terms on people who financially support LGBTQ+ organizations.

The crackdown is not confined to Africa.

Across parts of Asia, LGBTQ+ communities face some of the world’s harshest legal and social conditions. In Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, rights monitors say LGBTI people face systematic persecution, including violence, torture and the threat of severe punishment. The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor in 2025 sought arrest warrants for Taliban leaders over alleged crimes against humanity tied to persecution in Afghanistan.

In Indonesia, Aceh province remains a stark example of public punishment for same-sex intimacy. Aceh is the only Indonesian province that enforces Shariah law. Earlier this year, two young men were publicly caned after a Shariah court convicted them of having sex with each other. The Associated Press reported that the men, aged 24 and 18, were arrested after residents suspected they were gay and turned them over to Shariah police.

Pakistan continues to criminalize consensual sex between men, with penalties that can include life imprisonment. Rights groups have also warned that court rulings have weakened protections for transgender and gender-diverse people.

Brunei, Malaysia and Myanmar also criminalize consensual same-sex activity in some form. In Malaysia, colonial-era laws and Syariah provisions can expose LGBTQ+ people to imprisonment and whipping. Brunei’s Syariah Penal Code includes extreme penalties for same-sex intimacy, although executions remain subject to a moratorium.

For advocates, these cases underline the central warning in the Dignity Network Canada assessment: anti-LGBTIQ+ campaigns are rarely isolated. They are often part of wider efforts to expand state control, restrict civic space and weaken democratic protections.

Against that backdrop, advocates at the Ottawa conference called on Canada to double its dedicated foreign aid for LGBTQ+ organizations abroad.

Julia Ehrt, executive director of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, told the conference that Canada currently contributes about $15 million a year to such organizations, according to The Canadian Press.

Doubling that amount would still represent well under one per cent of Canada’s total development spending, she said, but would have a major impact for groups working in hostile environments.

“It would go a long, long way within our movement,” Ehrt said, according to The Canadian Press. She added that such a move could “actually change the game,” especially if Canada persuaded other governments to follow.

Stephen Brown, a University of Ottawa professor who studies foreign aid and LGBTQ+ issues, supported the call. The Canadian Press reported that Brown said doubling dedicated LGBTQ+ funding would bring it to about 0.33 per cent of Canada’s overall aid budget.

Brown said the practical and symbolic impact would be significant at a time when queer-focused groups are under growing pressure worldwide.

The Dignity Network Canada assessment says Canada has already played a major role in this field. It says Canada joined and co-led the Equal Rights Coalition, supported the creation and renewal of the United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, joined the UN LGBTI Core Group and embedded sexual orientation and gender identity into its Feminist International Assistance Policy.

By 2021-22, the report says, Canada had become the world’s third-largest government donor supporting LGBTIQ+ rights. Canada’s LGBTIQ+ International Assistance Program was launched in 2019 with $30 million over five years, followed by $10 million annually. By 2025, about $37 million had been allocated.

The report also credits Canadian embassies for providing support in countries where open advocacy can put local activists at risk. That support has included quiet diplomatic advocacy, Pride events, safe meeting spaces, cultural programming and small grants through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives.

But the assessment says Canada’s progress remains uneven. It identifies gaps in coordination across departments, limited transparency around funding results and too much reliance on individual political and diplomatic champions rather than permanent mandates that can survive changes in government.

That unease has been sharpened by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s comment last November that Canada no longer has a feminist foreign policy. For groups that spent years helping Ottawa build and promote that approach, the statement raised fears that gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights and human-rights defender support could be pushed aside by defence and economic priorities.

Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, rejected the suggestion that Canada is pulling back.

“We’re not going away as Canadians on the world stage,” Oliphant said, according to The Canadian Press. “We will continue to be allies, friends with communities around the world that need support, that need friendship, that need money, that need encouragement.”