The Liberal government is considering whether to officially apologize to hundreds of people fired from positions in the public service or military during the Cold War simply because they were gay.



Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might also pardon gay men who were convicted of gross indecency and buggery before homosexual acts were decriminalized in 1969.



“All of these questions about discrimination in the past to individuals who did or did not work for the government are matters that are currently being reviewed by the government,” said Cameron Ahmad, Trudeau’s press secretary.



The Prime Minister’s Office has previously said Trudeau intends to recommend a pardon for Everett George Klippert, the only Canadian man to be declared a dangerous sexual offender because he was gay. Trudeau decided to recommend the pardon in February after a Globe and Mail story about Klippert’s conviction.



But a group called We Demand an Apology — a network that includes people directly affected by the government’s campaign to purge homosexuals from the public service, RCMP and military — wants to see the government’s pardon extended to all people who participated in consensual homosexual activity before and after the laws were relaxed, as the persecution of gays and lesbians in Canada continued throughout 1970s and 1980s.



The group is also pushing for an apology.



“There’s been no recognition that the Canadian government did anything wrong,” spokesman Gary Kinsman said Friday.



“We need a timeline for action. Recognizing injustices done is not difficult — it’s a question of a political will of the government to actually respond to these very legitimate grievances,” he said.



Asked if Trudeau is considering both the pardon and an official apology, Ahmad said: “That is part of what is being examined, but I can’t speak to what the outcome will be at this stage.”



At the height of the Cold War, the prevailing view was that homosexuals suffered from a character weakness that could make them disloyal and easy to manipulate. In the United States, which was in the grips of McCarthyism, homosexuals were often seen as communist sympathizers.



The Canadian government spied on men, hired informants and ultimately compiled a list of 9,000 names of alleged, suspected or confirmed homosexuals in the Ottawa area. Hundreds of others were fired, demoted or forced to inform on friends and acquaintances.



It was not an accidental campaign dreamed up by a few “nasty” people, Kinsman says, but rather something that came from the highest echelons of power. Careers were destroyed. Some men killed themselves.



But there’s a chance now for redress, he said.



“It’s really important for the Canadian state to take responsibility for what it did, to say that it was wrong and to apologize to all the people who were affected by this campaign.”



mpearson@postmedia.com

twitter.com/mpearson78