NEW WATERFORD, N.S. — The legion’s doors were locked but Sharon Montgomery-Dupe’s eyes were wide open.
She wanted to know why.
The journalist asked a lot of people about it, but no one would say much, only that the executive had resigned and not for financial reasons.
Montgomery-Dupe wrote a story based on what she knew.
It was well-read and got people talking, but the reporter knew there still was more to it.
Through persistence and trusted sources, she eventually learned the main reason for the mass resignation — a member of the Legion was being harassed because he was gay.
“We said, ‘This can’t go on,’” Andrea Muise, former first vice-president of the Legion, told her. “I spent 21 years in the military and never have I put up with what is happening at the Legion by some of the older guys. … It’s like a cancer. They want their own little club. It’s horrible, horrible, horrible.”
Jason McDonald of Scotchtown, N.S., is the victim of the harassment. He has filed a human rights complaint as well as a complaint with Branch 15 of the Royal Canadian Legion in New Waterford, N.S., where the incidents happened.
“When interviewing someone who is hurting so bad, you still see their eyes when you’re typing the story for publication.” — Sharon Montgomery-Dupe
He told Montgomery-Dupe, a reporter with The Cape Breton Post, the harassment started during dart night.
“Someone would say, ‘You shoot like a woman,’" he said. “Words used were, ‘queer, fag, fruit.’”
McDonald joined the Legion last September to give back and honour veterans, including family members who had served.
He became heavily involved in fundraising efforts and joined the executive in January.
Any rewards for giving back were smothered by the homophobia.
“All I have now are feelings of anxiety, panic attacks and crying outbursts,” he said.
Montgomery-Dupe’s in-depth story on McDonald was among SaltWire Network’s most-read articles this past week.
The reporter said McDonald was “upset, hurt, and spoke very fast” when she interviewed him.
“I could see the stress on his face and knew his ordeal was affecting his eating, sleeping and joy of living,” she wrote in a text exchange with me.
“When interviewing someone who is hurting so bad, you still see their eyes when you’re typing the story for publication.”
Montgomery-Dupe saw something else happen after the story was out there — the difference her article made for McDonald.
“Speaking to him the day it was published, he was overwhelmed, shocked by calls and messages from across the country. … He was also something else — comforted. Comforted by the fact he felt he was no longer standing alone.
“I spoke to him again that evening. I heard what his laugh sounded like for the first time.”
But, even more importantly, Montgomery-Dupe believes the story made a difference in her community — her goal for every word she types.
It certainly generated conversation. She spoke with readers about it at Tim Hortons, at an Irving gas station, and in The Cape Breton Post parking lot, among other places physical and virtual.
“People were telling me they were upset, shocked, surprised, outraged and sad to know this was still going on. Although people like to believe there isn’t discrimination, they got to hear a story where a young man said it is here and in their backyard.”
That response made Montgomery-Dupe optimistic.
“It was a good feeling to see people talking, as that’s where change in attitude and life begins.”
She has since penned two follow-up stories.
One was on the response McDonald was getting since going public.
“The support I’m receiving, it warms your heart,” he told her. “Homophobia is systemic in New Waterford. Things have to change.”
He even got an apologetic Facebook message from a Legion president in B.C.
“He shared the story on his Legion’s Facebook page and captioned it, ‘We need to do better.’ That kind of blew me away,” McDonald said.
Montgomery-Dupe’s other story detailed how the Legion members who resigned, including McDonald, are starting a new non-profit.
It’s called the Giving Hands Society.
That’s really fitting, because we should all be giving them a hand for standing up to homophobia and discrimination.
We should also give Montgomery-Dupe a hand for pushing through the locked Legion doors and telling us what was really going on.
Steve Bartlett is SaltWire Network’s senior managing editor. Reach him at [email protected].
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