It is #PrideMonth and this is the story of Delwin Vriend, whose firing sparked a debate over sexual orientation discrimination.
Delwin Vriend was born in Iowa in 1966 & moved to an organic vegetable farm near Edmonton with his family when he was two.
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As an adult, he earned a mathematics and physics degree and then started working as a laboratory coordinator & chemistry lab instructor at King's College (University) in Edmonton.
In 1991, he was fired by King's College due to his sexual orientation.
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Vriend filed a discrimination complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission but this was refused as sexual orientation was not protected under the human rights code.
He then sued the Alberta Government & Human Rights Commission.
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In 1994, an Alberta court ruled that sexual orientation was a protected class under human rights legislation.
The Alberta government appealed this & in 1996, the court's decision was overruled by the Alberta Court of Appeal.
The case went to the Supreme Court of Canada.
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The case, Vriend v. Alberta, was ruled on in 1998 with the Supreme Court stating provincial governments could not exclude protection of individuals from human rights legislation based on sexual orientation.
Religious groups lobbed the government to overturn the decision.
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The Supreme Court case had large ramifications in Canadian law & was used as a legal precedent concerning civil rights & constitutional laws.
Due to publicity of the case, Vriend eventually left Canada in 2000.
In 2011, he was inducted into the Q Hall of Fame Canada.
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On this day in 1992, David Milgaard was released from prison.
He spent over two decades imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. His mother Joyce never gave up on him and fought for his release.
This is the story of the man who inspired the song Wheat Kings.
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David Milgaard was born on July 7, 1952 in Winnipeg.
In January 1969, he was in Saskatoon with his friends Ron Wilson and Nichol John on a trip across Canada.
While visiting their friend Albert Cadrain, 20-year-old nursing student Gail Miller was found dead nearby.
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The assault and murder of Miller generated a lot of attention in the media. Police questioned sex offenders in the area but had no leads.
A month after the murder, Cadrain went to police and told them Milgaard was acting suspicious on the drive to Calgary.
On this day in 2022, Mike Bossy died.
Among his many accomplishments, his 0.76 Goals-Per-Game Average remains a record to this day.
He is considered by some to be the greatest natural goal scorer in NHL history.
This is the story of Mike Bossy.
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Mike Bossy was born in Montreal on Jan. 22, 1957, the fifth son in a family of ten children.
As a child, he had a backyard rink he practiced on. In 1969, he played in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament, and then joined Laval National of the QMJHL.
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In five seasons, he scored 309 goals and 562 points in 264 games with Laval, but was called "not rugged enough" and defensively weak by scouts.
In the 1977 NHL Draft, 12 teams passed him over. The Rangers and Maple Leafs passed on him twice.
On this day in 1980, Terry Fox dipped his leg into the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's to begin his run across Canada.
This is the story of the Marathon of Hope.
In March 1977, Terry Fox was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a cancer that starts near the knees. The day before his leg was amputated, he read about the first amputee to complete the New York City Marathon and he became inspired.
📸Simon Fraser University
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After 14 months of training, which involved running every day for 101 days, he competed in a 27-km marathon in Prince George.
On April 12, 1980, after months of preparation, Terry dipped his leg into the ocean and filled two bottles with ocean water.
During this week in 1815, eruptions began at Mount Tambora in Indonesia.
It culminated in the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded human history that lowered global temperatures in 1816.
This is the story of Canada's Year Without A Summer
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After days of eruptions, Mount Tambora erupted with a volcanic explosivity index of 7.
The 37-45 sq-km of dense-rock equivalent material was thrown into the atmosphere and spread around the world.
This cooled global temperatures by .53 degrees Celsius.
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Through the winter of 1815-16, things seemed normal in Canada.
By the time spring was supposed to arrive, residents of present-day Quebec and Ontario began to notice winter was not leaving.
Three to four feet of snow existed still in late-April.
Throughout the federal election campaign, I am looking at elections from Canada's past.
Today, it is the 1917 election, or Khaki Election.
This was one of the most divisive and bitter elections in Canadian history, which reshaped Canadian politics for decades to come.
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Three years after the last election in 1911, the First World War began.
Sir Robert Borden was still Prime Minister and leader of the Conservatives.
The six year gap between the 1911 and 1917 election is the longest election gap in Canadian history.
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In 1916, due to the First World War, Parliament agreed to suspend an election for one year.
Borden hoped that the delay would allow him to form a coalition government of all the parties as he attempted to put through conscription.
I have covered many aspects of Canada's border history in the past week.
Today, I am exploring why the Canadian border with Alaska extends so far south along the Pacific Coast and how the decision led to a desire for greater Canadian independence from Britain.
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The issue of the border dates back to 1825 when Russia (who owned Alaska at the time) signed the Treaty of Saint Petersburg with Britain. The treaty only focused on the coastal area as the interior was mountainous and of little interest to either country.
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On March 30, 1867, the United States bought the entire Alaska region from Russia. With the purchase, the United States hoped to claim territory from Alaska down to Mexico and control the entire Pacific Coast.
That hope ended when British Columbia joined Canada in 1871.