Newly declassified federal records reveal the Canadian Armed Forces dramatically overestimated the number of sexual minority personnel before ending its ban on gay recruits, with officials suggesting as many as 10% of service members were homosexual — more than three times the figure later confirmed through surveys.Blacklock's Reporter says the documents, released through Access to Information, show military leaders and the Brian Mulroney government debated lifting the ban throughout the late 1980s before Canada officially opened recruitment to sexual minority Canadians in 1992.A 1991 military briefing titled Information Booklet On Sexual Orientation In The Canadian Forces argued the armed forces likely reflected broader Canadian society."If one assumes the Canadian Forces is a mirror of Canadian society then upwards to 10% of the military could have homosexual orientation to some degree," the document stated, while acknowledging the figure was only an estimate because many people did not publicly disclose their sexual orientation.Subsequent surveys painted a much different picture.Statistics Canada research commissioned by the military in 2016 found that approximately 3,000 of Canada's 104,000 Regular Force members and reservists — or 2.9% — identified as a sexual minority. A 2021 Statistics Canada report noted that compared with about 4% of Canadians in the general population identified as a sexual minority.When Canada lifted the ban in 1992, it became one of only nine countries permitting sexual minority people to openly serve in the military. The others were Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland.The records also show the Canadian Armed Forces discharged 58 members because of their homosexuality during the five years leading up to the policy change.A confidential 1986 memorandum from the Armed Forces Council described the issue as one of the military's most difficult policy challenges.The memo said senior officials were concerned both about operational effectiveness and the equality rights of service members, while also warning of "very strong antipathy" among many personnel toward serving alongside homosexual members..The document argued opposition was rooted less in attitudes toward homosexuality generally than in concerns about military life and its close living and working conditions.Cabinet records also show then-prime minister Brian Mulroney supported ending discrimination against sexual minority Canadians, in part based on inflated estimates of the size of the gay population.According to confidential cabinet minutes from 1986, Mulroney told ministers that about 15% of Canadians were believed to have "homosexual inclination" and argued it was unacceptable to maintain laws permitting discrimination against what he described as "God's children."The minutes quote Mulroney as saying leadership required taking "the high road" and recognizing changing social attitudes, adding that tolerance in a pluralistic society was "not only desirable but essential."At the same time, the prime minister said he did not want to force government backbenchers to support a policy some might find morally objectionable and sought to avoid a broader public debate on the issue.
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