Trudeau promises $100m for LGBT soldiers and apologises for 'gay purge'

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to apologise to LGBT soldiers, members of the police and other federal agencies who lost their jobs or were arrested because of their sexual orientation.

His government has reportedly earmarked more than C$100m (£58.8m) for the victims of what has been described as a "gay purge."

LGBT people serving in the Canadian police force and military faced discrimination until as recently as 1992.

The careers of thousands of people were sidelined or ended when officials discovered that they were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Same-sex relationships were decriminalised in Canada in 1969, with Trudeau's father Pierre, then serving as justice minister, famously commenting: "I think the view we take here is that there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."

On Tuesday (28 November), the Canadian government will offer an apology to LGBT Canadians "for the injustices they have suffered and to advance together on a path to equality and inclusion", Trudeau said in a statement on Twitter.

Trudeau's government will also propose legislation ordering military and civilian courts to expunge the criminal records of people convicted of same-sex relations.

Gary Kinsman, a sociology professor at Laurentian University, described the apology and compensation offered to victims as "genuinely historic".

"It's also been an incredibly long time coming," he said. "I'm very saddened by the fact that many of the people who really needed to be apologised to have passed away."

"I already know that I'm going to cry, because it's an important step forward and it's long overdue," Jim Kane, who has spent decades fighting for LGBT rights, told Canadian broadcaster CBC.

Kane said one of his close friends was sent to prison after he was caught holding hands with another man. He himself was threatened by a police officer for using a gay website. "I was told not to be in that area because it was full of perverts, queers and gearboxes," he said.