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John Damien
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John Damien
Biography
John Damien was fired by the Ontario Racing Commission in 1975 because of his sexual orientation. He filed a wrongful dismissal suit against the Commission in the Supreme Court of Ontario, and another suit for punitive damages against officials of the Ontario Jockey Club, the Commission, and the Ontario Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations. The Ontario Human Rights Commission refused to investigate John Damien's complaint on the grounds that it did not deal with cases related to sexual orientation. Damien was supported in his case by the Toronto Gay Alliance Toward Equality, the Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario, and many other gay rights activists. He was also part of a delegation that presented Ontario Minister of Labour Robert Elgie with the brief "Discrimination and the Gay Minority." In the end, the Ontario Racing Commission paid $50,000 into a trust fund, a trade-off for Damien dropping the suit. At that time, Damien had pancreatic cancer and died shortly after.
