Everett Klippert, the last person in Canada to be jailed for being gay

For the last 53 years, it has not been a federal crime to be homosexual. Today, we take such a thing for granted but for the first 102 years of Canada’s existence, being gay meant going to jail.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act, a massive omnibus change to the criminal code, changed many things about Canada. It brought in animal cruelty laws, made it easier to get a divorce and legalized (somewhat) abortion.

Arguably, the most lasting impact was the decriminalization of homosexuality.

That change, in part, came about because of a man named George Everett Klippert.

You might also like:
• The poet, actor and Canadian Indigenous icon of Chief Dan George
• The shameful history behind the "fruit machine" used to out gay Canadians

Klippert was born on September 6, 1926, in Kindersley, Saskatchewan, but spent most of his youth in Calgary before leaving school in grade eight.

Early on, Klippert knew he was gay, but he also knew that it was a federal crime to be homosexual. Nonetheless, he soon found himself heading to jail because of his sexual orientation.

In 1960, while working as a transit bus driver, he was charged with and pleaded guilty to 18 counts of gross indecency and spent four years in prison. Klippert had admitted to police to sex acts with men.

After he was released from prison, he moved to Pine Point, Northwest Territories, and worked as a mechanic. In 1965, he was questioned by police after an arson in the community. They determined that Klippert had nothing to do with the arson but while questioning him, Klippert admitted to consensual sex with four different men in the community.

With that, he was charged with gross indecency.

Klippert was given little legal representation, and sentenced to three years in prison on four counts of gross indecency. Due to the fact that this was the second time he had been arrested and charged due to sex acts with men, the Crown applied for him to be designated a dangerous sexual offender.

Two psychiatrists came in and testified that Klippert had no pedophilic or aggressive tendencies, but that he was, in their words, incurably homosexual.

They recommended he receive psychiatric care instead of prison.

Instead of listening to their recommendation, Judge John Sissons declared Klippert to be a dangerous offender.

While Klippert sat in prison, his sister Leah appealed to ruling all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. On November 7, 1967, the court ruled, three to two, to uphold the conviction and the designation as a dangerous sexual offender.

The ruling caused outrage in Canada, including in Parliament. It should be noted that while the outrage centred on his acts not being criminal, those speaking on his behalf still considered him to have a psychiatric problem due to his attraction to men.

In Parliament, Bud Orange, who was Klippert’s MP, objected to his treatment. He stated to the CBC, “It is ridiculous that any man would be put into jail because they are affected by a social disease.”

Tommy Douglas, leader of the federal NDP, stated in the House of Commons that “homosexuality is a social and psychiatric problem, rather than a criminal one.”

Partly due to the response to the ruling, Pierre Trudeau, the federal justice minister, added the legalization of consensual sex between two males over the age of 20, to his omnibus justice bill.

The bill passed in 1969, but Klippert remained in prison until 1971. Not only is he considered the last Canadian to be imprisoned for being homosexual, but also the only one to be labelled a dangerous offender due to his sexual orientation.

After his release from prison, Klippert lived a quiet life in Edmonton, working as a truck driver. When he retired in the mid-1980s, he married and refused to march in any Pride parades or be a public figure.

On August 7, 1996, he died of kidney disease.

His story was forgotten at that point until the Globe and Mail published a story about him 20 years later in February 2016. In response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated he would recommend a posthumous pardon for Klippert.

On November 18, 2020, an expungement order was issued by the Parole Board of Canada.