Educational resources

Canada and Malta: Leaders in Queer Liberation?

By Dr. Carla Caruana, former GLOCAL Director of Public Education

How does Canada measure up as a safe place for queer people? This archived GLOCAL article compares Canada's protections with Malta, which the head of Equality and Non-Discrimination at the United Nations Human Rights Office described in 2017 as a "gold standard" in the field.

Malta is a small group of islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Its long Roman Catholic tradition and British colonial laws once placed strong limits on queer life, but reforms made the country a notable example of modern legal rights and protections. Travel researchers Asher and Lyric ranked Canada first and Malta fourth in their 2022 list of safer destinations for LGBTQ+ travellers.

Points of comparison in the original article

• Sodomy laws and the legacy of British colonial law
• Equal ages of consent
• Legal protection for public gender nonconformity
• Open military service for queer and trans people
• Equal marriage, benefits, adoption and access to reproductive technologies
• Protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression
• Blood-donation rules
• Informed-consent and public-coverage models for trans health care
• Requirements for legal name and gender-marker changes
• Protection and legal recognition for intersex people
• Hate-crime legislation
• Bans on conversion therapy

Both countries continue to lag in some areas, and neither society is free from queerphobia, discrimination or violence. The original article emphasized that legal gains remain fragile and that further work is still required.