Prime Minister to right a historic wrong
Federal government to seek pardon of last man to be charged with homosexuality, Everett George Klippert
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, March 14, 2016
HAY RIVER
Hay River has a connection to a 50-year-old court case involving discrimination against a gay man, which has re-emerged onto the national consciousness.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced the federal government plans to pardon the late Everett George Klippert, the last man in Canada convicted as a dangerous sexual offender for being gay.
The mechanic's assistant, who was living in Pine Point in 1965, initially appeared in court in Hay River to face four counts of gross indecency after disclosing to the RCMP that he had sexual relations with consenting adult males.
The RCMP had questioned Klippert while investigating an arson in which he was not involved.
According to a transcript of an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, he was taken to Hay River on Aug. 16, 1965, after he had given the police a statement. On Aug. 17, he was arraigned before a magistrate.
Klippert pleaded guilty and remained in custody until Aug. 24, 1965, when he appeared in court in Fort Smith and was sentenced to three years concurrently on each charge.
The sentence was later extended to indefinite detention when a psychiatrist judged him to be a dangerous sex offender based on the charges in Pine Point and earlier convictions in Calgary.
"In effect, he was sentenced to a life in prison for being gay," said Yellowknife Centre MLA Julie Green during comments in the legislative assembly on Feb. 29.
Green praised the federal government's decision to right an "historic wrong" by pardoning Klippert.
His controversial case ignited public discussion and debate in the House of Commons, and led to the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1969.
The law was changed when Pierre Trudeau - the father of the current prime minister - led the country.
"I am proud to be the first woman married to a woman elected to this legislature," said Green on Feb. 29. "All this started with Everett Klippert. I am grateful to him for being the catalyst of these changes and join in congratulating the government of Canada on righting this historic wrong."
While his case prompted a change of the law, Klippert's 1967 appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied and he remained in prison until mid-1971.
The pardon will be posthumous since Klippert died about 20 years ago.
