(Ottawa) The House of Commons unanimously denounces the threats of sanctions made by FIFA against athletes and teams who want to show their support for LGBTQ+ rights.
New Democrat MP Blake Desjarlais obtained the unanimous consent of the House to table a motion aimed at expressing the disapproval of elected officials towards the sports federation organizing the World Cup.
The House of Commons “condemns FIFA’s decision to threaten to penalize players and teams who wear ‘One Love’ armbands during the World Cup in Qatar”, says the wording of this motion endorsed by all of the deputies.
Because international sports institutions have “a moral obligation to support players and fans by promoting the fight for equality and against homophobia, transphobia and all forms of discrimination in sport”, we read there. too.
Several European federations have asked their captains not to wear the multicolored “One Love” armband, in support of the LGBTQ+ community, after FIFA threatened players with sporting sanctions.
Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, host country of the World Cup.
At the start of the day, the Federal Minister of Sports, Pascale St-Onge, had deplored the attitude of FIFA.
The Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party (NDP) have called for a diplomatic boycott of the soccer high mass. In vain: the Minister for International Development, Hajit Sajjan, is in the small emirate in the company of a Conservative MP, Stephen Ellis.
Bloc Québécois Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe said he regretted that Canadian players, who earned a place at the World Cup for the first time since 1986, were “caught up talking about human rights in a country they had no perhaps never heard of”.