By ROBERT KRAYCHIKOTTAWA— A '2SLGBTQI+ National Monument' in Ottawa, is estimated to cost nearly $15 million and is scheduled to be completed in August, according to the official website marketing its development. It was initially planned for competition in the summer of 2025. The monument is being advertised as a memorial for "generations of 2SLGBTQI+ people" who are framed as having been abused, excluded and criminalized"..Funding for the monument, entitled "Thunderhead", is sourced from the federal government following a $145 million settlement of a class action lawsuit in 2018 filed by three former military members who were terminated due to their sexual preferences.Of the $145 million settlement, $15 million is slated towards "recognition and memorialization exhibits and monuments," which includes funding for the Thunderhead monument.The federal government, then headed by former prime minister Justin Trudeau, opted against contesting this lawsuit in a trial..On November 28, 2017, Trudeau issued an apology in the House of Commons for what he said was the federal government's "oppression of and discrimination against LGBTQ2 people in Canada".The Thunderhead website dubs the federal government's termination of "2SLGTBQI+ people" between the 1950s and 1990s as the "LGBT Purge.""Generations of 2SLGBTQI+ people in Canada have been abused, excluded and criminalized because of who they are, who they love and how they express and identify themselves," the website reads. "The Thunderhead monument is being built to recognize this historic discrimination, including the colonial roots of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia and the cruelty of the Canadian government during the LGBT Purge. It will celebrate the resilience of all queer and trans communities and serve to inspire the change still needed in Canada."The federal government, via the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and other avenues, also uses the term "LGBT Purge" to describe what it claims was "the systematic identification and expulsion of queer members of the military, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the civil service by the government of Canada.""Indigiqueer Elders" helped develop the Thunderhead monument, implying some sort of overlap between Aboriginal Canadians and the political campaign surrounding the monument, according to the "LGBT Purge Fund."."This monument, and its words, were developed with input from thousands of 2SLGBTQI+ community members, including Purge survivors and Indigiqueer Elders," the website reads.The $145 million class action lawsuit is now advertised as the "LGBT Purge Fund". Its official website describes "2SLGBTQI+" Canadians who were "systematically discriminated against" as "survivors."The fund will also pay for a permanent niche with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, including development of a traveling exhibit as part of a "reconciliation and memorialization" mandate."The fight for 2SLGBTQI+ equality is ongoing," according to the Thunderhead monument's Facebook profile.The monument's TikTok profile includes a "land acknowledgment" challenging Canadian sovereignty in Ottawa. It states, "The monument will sit on unceded and traditional Anishinabe Algonquin Nation territory. We’re deeply honoured to use this land." It also references "Indigiqueer Elders" and describes the monument's surrounding park as "an unapologetically queer space" and "a place of pride".
