The Ugandan LBTQ community living in Canada have strongly come out on the streets, protesting and calling out on all Human Rights organisations across all Europe to boycott all Uganda government activities, should President Museveni sign the Gay bill making it law.
The gay bill was recently discussed and passed by the parliament of Uganda with majority of the house members voting for the law to be passed.
The LGBTQI+ like they prefer to be called, have since come out on all over social media platforms cursing the move and saying it is a violation of their right.
The protests started with a gathering at Dundas Square, a procession on the streets there after which later ended up with another peaceful gathering at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario – Queen Park in Canada.
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This procession on the streets started with a community conference, held and broadcast through a YouTube channel that was run by a one Samuel Kisitu gear up whilst reaching out to far gay communities across the world.
“We are calling out all the Human rights activists to come out and stand up in a bid to stop President Museveni from signing the gay bill into law.” a one Wamala is quoted during the speeches in the conference.
The protests and demonstration were then received with open arms as per the messages then shared with lots comments across by those that have that heed to the practice in Uganda.
Amongst their concerns according the voices that aired on a youtube channel was that; the current legislative assault on LGBTQI+ rights in Uganda, were they directly called to action for Canadian government, private sector, and civil society organisations that come from Ugandan LGBTQI+ organisations and leaders.
They claim to ask for Canadian multinational corporations and trade organisations to speak out publicly and urge President Museveni to abstain from signing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law.
They went ahead to call on the Canadian Government to impose visa bans on human rights violators promoting the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda, including Ugandan Members of Parliament supporting the bill.
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In the same conference, they asked the Canadian Government to provide flexible funding to support LGBTQI+ organisations on the ground defending human rights in Uganda.
Also, that Canada should create an emergency action fund to allow civil society the nimbleness to respond to these crackdowns and crisis situations in real time.
“We ask the Canadian Government to create flexible visas and humanitarian programs for at-risk LGBTQI+ Ugandans and human rights defenders who may need urgent pathways to safety.” the document seen by this reporter read.
Samuel Kisitu one of the organisers of the conference said “we ask the Canadian Government to hold the Ugandan government to account in multilateral spaces for their responsibility to uphold human rights. We ask for the support of the community in amplifying these recommendations, and call on our Canadian partners across government, the private sector, and civil society to urgently implement them.
This call has been coordinated by members of Dignity Network Canada: Stephen Lewis Foundation, Rainbow Railroad, Equitas, The Equality Fund and African Centre for Refugees to amplify the messages from our partners in Uganda.
Dennis WAMALA had key notes and remarks he gave at the press conference, in this where he called on Ford to restore health care access for people without health care insurance — such as people fleeing Uganda’s new anti-LGBTQ law.
Also Hon. Kristyn Wong-Tam, the Toronto Centre MPP added to the message given by all speakers as a collective message that amplified a protest held on Sunday, 2nd April 2023, 3 PM at Dundas Square in Toronto Canada.
Amongst the other key speakers were Doreen Kajumba, a Human Rights Activists in Canada, Mr David Magezi, an active key participant of the Sunday protest who for fear of his life fled the country in July of last year.
Him and many others in the conference expressed dissatisfaction of what they claimed will be a harsh law with unrealistic punishments which would boost the homophobic crowds to turn on the LGBTQI community across the country, should President Museveni sign.
Many Human rights Actors and organisation were called up to take action.
ACT (Toronto) ActingOut Waterloo Region Advocacy Canada African Centre for Refugees in Ontario Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention Archives gaies du Québec Association amongst others.
