“We call for the protection of all people in Chechnya whose sexual orientation makes them a target for persecution,” he said.

But unlike when Mr. Trudeau decided to greet Syrian refugees at the Toronto airport in front of television cameras and to march in various gay pride parades across the country, his office has remained tight-lipped about the program for Chechens, perhaps because of the diplomatic ramifications.

Before running for Parliament, Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, was a journalist who spent time in Moscow and covered the war in Chechnya. In 2014, the Russian government barred her from entering the country.

“Canada appears to be the only country that has done this on a such a massive scale,” Tanya Lokshina, the Russia program director for Human Rights Watch, said over the phone from Moscow, referring to the asylum program. “It’s certainly exceptional. Canada clearly has done the right thing here. Every extra day they stay in this country is an extra day of dire risk.”

Beginning in February, militia and government forces in Chechnya rounded up more than 100 people perceived to be gay or bisexual and tortured them in unofficial detention centers in the capital, Grozny, and in nearby Argun. At least three died, according to Human Rights Watch.

The Chechen government has repeatedly denied that the pogrom happened. In July, the Chechen leader, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, said in an interview for an HBO show that gay people did not exist in his country. “If there are, take them to Canada,” he said. “To purify our blood if there are any here, take them.”

Ms. Lokshina participated in a panel with Ms. Freeland in April in Arizona discussing human rights in Russia. Ms. Lokshina said she used the chance meeting as an opportunity to press for sanctuary for the Chechens, many of whom had escaped to Russian safe houses.