23/10/2022
Wikipedia reports that Marion Boyd, a former member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the social democratic party the NDP, has passed on at the age of seventy six. Boyd was the first woman to hold the position of Attorney General on Ontario, and in that role she championed legislation called the Equality Rights Statute Amendment Bill in 1993. This would have granted equal rights to same sex couples in most areas of law. Sadly, after a shameful campaign of public intolerance whipped up by the political right wing and full time hate groups, the bill failed on a free vote. Wikipedia concludes “The bill's failure was a personal disappointment for Boyd, who had invested considerable effort in promoting its passage. The Progressive Conservative Party, which voted unanimously against Bill 167, formed government after the next election and ultimately passed similar legislation five years later when required by the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling”. Boyd’s passing and her allyship of the LGBTQIA community was quietly noted in the Canadian gay press.
