Opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s anti-gay legislation is growing among Canadian athletes ahead of the next year’s Sochi Olympics.
The law, adopted earlier this summer, outlaws gay “propaganda,” and Mr. Putin has announced bans on demonstrations just before and during the Games.
This weekend in Canada, the law continued to have a ripple effect. In Calgary, hockey superstar Sidney Crosby spoke against it.
“Those are laws that we don’t necessarily agree with, and I don’t agree with it personally,” said Mr. Crosby, speaking at an orientation camp for the Canadian Olympic hockey team.
In Ottawa, several Canadian Olympic athletes as well as the head of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Marcel Aubut, participated in the Capital Pride parade for the first time.
Canada’s Olympic team has spent the past several months reaching out to Canada’s gay community and decided in February that Pride events would be among the events they participated in.
Dmitri Soudas is executive director of communications for the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Terry Haig spoke with Mr. Soudas by phone and asked him to explain what the COC hopes to achieve by participating in Pride events as well as Canada’s position on Mr. Putin’s anti-gay legislation.
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