House of Commons lawmakers unanimously condemned FIFA for ‘threatening to penalize players and teams who wear One Love armbands at the World Cup in Qatar’.
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In the colors of the rainbow, the One Love armband comes from a campaign of the same name to promote LGBTQ rights in the Muslim emirate.
Several European sports organizations had announced their intention to wear this armband to the captain of their team, but were quickly disillusioned after threats from FIFA, the organization which oversees the World Cup.
The motion was tabled by NDP MP Blake Desjarlais, who said when reading it that “international sporting institutions have a moral obligation to support players and fans in advancing the fight for equality and against homophobia, transphobia and all forms of discrimination in sport”.
Called to comment on the situation last week by the QMI Agency, Soccer Canada had not indicated whether it intended to follow in the footsteps of European countries, but ultimately did not have to back down.
Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge had herself expressed her dissatisfaction with the “contradictions” of FIFA.
“I find it a pity. I think there is a way to do it so that sports competitions can take place in a solidarity, fraternal way, in short, with everything that sport demands, but at the same time, to allow a certain freedom of expression “, she said.
The NDP and the Bloc Québécois demanded a diplomatic boycott of the World Cup by not sending any official representative of Canada to Qatar.
Minister Harjit Sajjan, International Development and Pacific Economic Development Agency, is on the scene, however, and plans to stay there until Wednesday, when Canada will play its first game in the competition.