Montreal LGBTQ human rights group Collectif Carré Rose is furious that Prime Minister Trudeau’s government and Premier Couillard have not responded to his group’s recent letters calling on them to stand-up for the rights of gay men in Chechnya.
“When it’s ‘gay people’ it seems to be easier to don’t do nothing,” said Collectif co-founder Louis-Alain Robitaille. “It’s like it just fell in between two chairs and people are dying and nobody is doing anything.”
In late April, Robitaille held a 200-person strong vigil in Montreal’s gay village, with the collaboration of area business associations.
At that time Robitaille wrote the Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Premier Couillard. He called on them to take action over reports of torture, human rights abuses and abductions of gay men in Chechnya, which allegedly landed them in “concentration camps.”
This past week, new unconfirmed reports in a Russian newspaper suggested at least 27 men were rounded up, allegedly for being gay, and murdered through extrajudicial killings.
Kremlin-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov denies the claims saying gays don’t exist there.
"This is nonsense. We don't have those kinds of people here. We don't have any gays. If there are any, take them to Canada," said Kadyrov in an interview with HBO Real Sports cable television show. Excerpts of the HBO interview were released on Friday.
“If they were arresting Catholic people and executing them I think it would be world news right now and everyone would try to do something about it.”
Robitaille says it’s no longer enough for politicians and others to show up for Pride events, if they’re not willing to do the work to protect gay men from violence.
“Mr. Trudeau was there in our gay pride parade and we’re super happy to have him, don’t get me wrong,” said Robitaille. “It’s nice to be there with us when the show is there, but when the show is over there’s work to do and gay people are dying right now, so we have to do something about it.”
CJAD 800 asked Global Affairs Canada for a comment on this story, but the Department did not respond to our request.