Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, asked her services, Monday, November 28, to summon the Russian ambassador to Ottawa, Oleg Stepanov, after the publication of a series of anti-LGBT + tweets, including one targeting the federal sports minister, Pascale St-Onge, openly lesbian.

Messages posted by the Russian Embassy’s Twitter account echo the recent adoption by the Russian Duma of a draft law prohibiting any “propaganda” LGBT+, or even “promoting non-traditional sexual relationships” to all audiences, in the media, on the Internet, in books and in films.

“The Russians have once again chosen hate propaganda”said Emily Williams, spokesperson for Mélanie Joly. “This is an attack on Canadian values ​​of acceptance and tolerance. Minister Joly asked the ministry to summon the Russian ambassador to communicate this message to him”she added.

The Russian tweets included a photo of a rainbow flag crossed out with a red line and accompanied by comments: “It’s all about family. The family is a man, a woman and children. »

‘Deeply offended’

The embassy also attacked Canadian sports minister Pascale St-Onge, who is openly lesbian, after she denounced the “Russian homophobic propaganda”. “We cannot tolerate this rhetoric and even less the comments about Minister St-Onge”underlined the Canadian ministry of foreign affairs.

In an email to Agence France-Presse, Pascale St-Onge said “deeply offended by the Russian Ambassador’s message against homosexuals while on Canadian soil”calling it a‘Offend to the hard-won rights of the entire LGBT+ community’.

Russia seeks to portray LGBT+ relations as a product of dangerous Western influence, amid the Kremlin’s conservative hardening accompanying its military offensive in Ukraine.

The tweets from his embassy were also posted after a deadly shooting at an LGBT+ club in Colorado (USA) and after the controversy sparked by the rainbow logo of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where the homosexuality is illegal.