From: brewnoserii@gmail.com   
      
   Who wouldda thought it would happen in *Calgary* ?     ((+_+))   
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   Calgary Herald - February 27, 2016   
      
      
   Feds to seek pardon for Calgary man sent to prison for being gay   
      
      
   Hoping to right a wrong from another era, the federal government will   
   recommend a posthumous pardon to a Calgary man who was the only Canadian to be   
   declared a dangerous sexual offender simply because he was gay.   
      
   "Everett Klippert's case was instrumental in the government's decision to   
   decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults," said the Prime   
   Minister's Office in a statement.   
      
   The government will also review hundreds of cases of gay men convicted of acts   
   such as "buggery" and other offences prior to the legalization of male   
   homosexual acts in 1969.  Lesbian acts were never illegal in Canada.   
      
   Born in 1926 in Kindersley, Sask., Klippert grew up in Calgary and was a   
   popular bus driver until 1960 when he was arrested and convicted of 18 counts   
   of gross indecency -- all relating to consensual sexual activity with other   
   men.   
      
   After serving three years in prison, Klippert left Calgary and moved to the   
   Northwest Territories.   
      
   "Having been discharged from the penitentiary he was aware of the need to   
   refrain from engaging in this behaviour again," reads the record from his   
   later Supreme Court appeal.   
      
   "He stated that some attempt, some contacts had been made with him by   
   ex-friends and for this reason, as well as the feeling of his continued   
   presence bringing shame on his family, he decided to leave Calgary and head   
   north."   
      
   Klippert settled in a small mining town where he worked as a mechanic's   
   assistant. In 1965, having been previously notified of Klippert's conviction,   
   RCMP arrested him after he admitted to further consensual acts with men.   
      
   He pled guilty to four counts of gross indecency, and was sentenced to three   
   years in prison.   
      
   But the Crown, pointing to Klippert's previous conviction, fought and won a   
   dangerous sexual offender designation.  He was sentenced to preventative   
   detention on the grounds that he would not be able to stop himself from   
   reoffending -- essentially, a    
   life sentence for being gay.   
      
   The Supreme Court upheld his appeal in November 1967.     
      
   The controversy around the sentence prompted Pierre Trudeau's government to   
   table legislation decriminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults   
   the following month, along with the prime minister's famous quote, "there's no   
   place for the state in    
   the bedrooms of the nation."   
      
   In 1969 the law was passed. Calgary Police Chief Ken McIver reportedly said at   
   the time, "Now that homosexuality is legal everyone in Canada is going to   
   become either gay or lesbian."          {>_<}     
      
   Klippert would not be released from prison until 1971, having served nearly a   
   decade behind bars for nothing more than his sexual preference.   
      
   He died of kidney failure in 1996 in Bashaw, Alta., aged 69.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)