The Canadian Foreign Minister, Melanie Joly, has summoned the Russian ambassador, Oleg Stepanov, on Monday to ask for explanations for a series of anti-LGBT publications on the social networks of the Russian Embassy in Ottawa.
“As expected, the Russians have once again chosen hate propaganda. We absolutely cannot tolerate this rhetoric. This is an attack on Canadian values of acceptance and tolerance,” the minister said, as reported by CBC .
With this appointment, it is the third time that Joly summons Stepanov so far this year.
In recent days, the Russian embassy in Canada has been spreading posts on the Twitter and Telegram platforms in which it ensures that the West “is imposing family values” and that “families can only include a man, a woman and children “, reports ‘The Globe and Mail’.
Likewise, he has accused the Canadian government of meddling in Russian affairs, while they have addressed the Minister of Sports, Pascale St-Onge directly.
St-Onge, a member of the LGBT community, has criticized the Russian legislation, calling it “homophobic propaganda” and an “attack on Human Rights.” The Embassy has lashed out at her in response.
These tweets were published after the Russian Duma approved a law that toughens and expands punishments against those who spread LGTBI content.
The Russian ruling party justified this reform on the need to combat “scourges such as pedophilia”, but for organizations defending Human Rights this rule has meant another step in the repression against the LGTBI collective.
Fines for LGTBI “propaganda” can reach 400,000 rubles (about 6,400 euros) in the case of ordinary citizens, or 800,000 rubles in the case of officials. In the case of entities, the penalty rises to 5 million (more than 79,000 euros), the Interfax agency reported.
