{"id":108066,"date":"2026-08-21T14:08:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T18:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=108066"},"modified":"2026-08-21T14:08:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T18:08:50","slug":"national-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/national-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa\/","title":{"rendered":"National monument marking LGBTQ+ persecution unveiled in Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Dylan Robertson Victims of state prosecution hope Canada&#8217;s new national monument for LGBTQ+ people will be a place to learn, grieve and celebrate. The monument officially opened Thursday morning in Ottawa, just west of Parliament Hill. &#8220;We&#8217;re telling the stories of what happened to so many of us, and making sure that Canadians know this is a time we should never return to,&#8221; said Michelle Douglas head of the LGBT Purge Fund, in an interview. Douglas speaks on behalf of members of the military and public service who were pushed out of their jobs on the suspicion they were part of a gender or sexual minority, a practice that was commonplace in the federal government during the Cold War. The Heritage Department website says &#8220;the Purge was a prolonged&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F08%2F21%2Fnational-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Dylan Robertson Victims of state prosecution hope Canada&#8217;s new national monument for LGBTQ+ people will be a place to learn, grieve and celebrate. The monument officially opened Thursday morning in Ottawa, just west of Parliament Hill. &#8220;We&#8217;re telling the stories of what happened to so many of us, and making sure that Canadians know this is a time we should never return to,&#8221; said Michelle Douglas head of the LGBT Purge Fund, in an interview. Douglas speaks on behalf of members of the military and public service who were pushed out of their jobs on the suspicion they were part of a gender or sexual minority, a practice that was commonplace in the federal government during the Cold War. The Heritage Department website says &#8220;the Purge was a prolonged... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F08%2F21%2Fnational-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>National monument marking LGBTQ+ persecution unveiled in Ottawa - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/national-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"National monument marking LGBTQ+ persecution unveiled in Ottawa - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Dylan Robertson Victims of state prosecution hope Canada&#8217;s new national monument for LGBTQ+ people will be a place to learn, grieve and celebrate. The monument officially opened Thursday morning in Ottawa, just west of Parliament Hill. &#8220;We&#8217;re telling the stories of what happened to so many of us, and making sure that Canadians know this is a time we should never return to,&#8221; said Michelle Douglas head of the LGBT Purge Fund, in an interview. Douglas speaks on behalf of members of the military and public service who were pushed out of their jobs on the suspicion they were part of a gender or sexual minority, a practice that was commonplace in the federal government during the Cold War. The Heritage Department website says &#8220;the Purge was a prolonged\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/national-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-21T18:08:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/21\\\/national-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/21\\\/national-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"National monument marking LGBTQ+ persecution unveiled in Ottawa\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-21T18:08:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/21\\\/national-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":765,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/21\\\/national-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/21\\\/national-monument-marking-lgbtq-persecution-unveiled-in-ottawa\\\/\",\"name\":\"National monument marking LGBTQ+ persecution unveiled in Ottawa - 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