OTTAWA — Federal Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan spoke strongly in favour of keeping LGBTQ rights enshrined in labour standards this week while a United Nations agency faced a push to remove them. O'Regan,who is gay, urged the meeting in Geneva to avoid a backslide on hard-won rights for vulnerable workers. The ILO is a United Nations agency that sets international standards on issues such as child labour, the right to unionize and anti-discrimination law. "Once rights are achieved … we will not stand by and have them brushed over, put back in the closet, or taken away," O'Regan said on stage. O'Regan told delegates it took Canada decades to recognize LGBTQ rights, and that conservative groups who warned about dire consequences from same-sex marriage were in the wrong.

Source: Libya Today June 14, 2023 19:55 UTC