An Alberta man, Everett George Klippert has been described as the last man in Canada imprisoned for homosexual acts between consenting adults. Now after years of obscurity his case is back in the news.
Some details of Klippert’s life are clouded and troubling. But what is absolutely clear is that his controversial imprisonment as a dangerous sexual offender in 1966 clarified minds on Parliament Hill and played a significant role, three years later. in the passage of legislation that finally decriminalization homosexuality.
But the line from Klippert’s offences and convictions, to the laudable change in the law, his subsequent release and return to a quiet and very private life in Edmonton is not one without a few knotty problems.
The first troubling question is: Was Klippert a paedophile?
Klippert had two significant brushes with the law. In 1960 while working as a bus driver in Calgary the 33-year-old was convicted of 18 charges of “gross indecency” under the then s. 149 of the Criminal Code. At the time, gross indecency was the charge laid against those alleged to have engaged in homosexual practices.
At his May 1960 trial he pleaded guilty to all charges. Competing Calgary daily newspapers both quote the Crown in the trial as identifying Klippert’s “victims” as “young boys”, though the papers never reveal the so-called young boys’ ages. Nor do the ages of the “the boys” appear in the information issued against Klippert. The Court was told Klippert met many of his partners while driving the bus and would give them free rides or sometimes a two-dollar bill.
“I have seen those newspaper reports and I really have no idea what they mean” says Toronto lawyer Doug Elliott. He has been investigating the Klippert case for some time. “Depending on your perspective it could mean someone under 30, someone under 18, or someone under 12.” If they had been prepubescent boys I would think that would have been referred to in the (Judge’s) remarks.”
Elliott also points out that initially Klippert was charged with the now abolished offence of Contributing to Juvenile Delinquency. But that charge was withdrawn presumably because the Crown felt it lacked the evidence to get a conviction.
Kevin Allen heads the Calgary Gay History Project. He has done a lot of the original research on Klippert. “In the 50s and 60s it was always talk about corruption of our young boys and ‘boys’ of 21 were lumped into that when people talked about homosexuality.” He has no definitive information on the age of Klippert’s partners. But Allen does point to testimony by Court-appointed psychiatrists in a later trial who testified Klippert “denied having any preference for young men”. At the time the age of consent for heterosexual acts was 14. Homosexual acts at any age were illegal.
Klippert was convicted on all counts and sentenced to four years in Prince Alberta Penitentiary in Saskatchewan. After his release he moved to Pine Point, NWT as a mechanic’s helper. In 1965 he was questioned by the RCMP about a suspected arson. They were satisfied he was not involved but in the course of the interview he voluntarily revealed four homosexual encounters. He was charged and convicted of gross indecency. He was sentenced to three years. However, the Crown was not satisfied and made an application for preventive detention, in other words an indefinite sentence, on the grounds Klippert was a dangerous sexual offender who had shown a failure to control his sexual impulses. The application was granted.
There were several unsuccessful appeals by Klippert and finally the matter landed before the Supreme Court of Canada. Brian Crane, a young lawyer at the time and still practicing today at 86, took the case pro bono. The Court split two to three and upheld the indefinite sentence. Crane recalls “the dissenters were more liberal, but when it came to the law the majority was more of a black letter group”. Writing for the majority Justice Fauteaux concluded “whether the criminal law, with respect to the sexual misconduct of the sort in which the appellant has indulged… should be changed… is not for us to say; our jurisdiction is to interpret and apply laws validly enacted.”
The decision sparked an outpouring of media anger. The matter was raised in Parliament. Then-Justice Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau famously mused “there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation." By 1969, Trudeau was prime minister and an omnibus bill was passed which included the decriminalization of homosexuality.
Throughout it all, Klippert languished in the penitentiary and was not released until 1971. Elliott thinks the delay may have been the result of Klippert lacking legal counsel and not realizing after the passage of the bill he could apply for release.
When he was released Klippert moved to Edmonton where he ultimately married a woman. In spite of the way he had been treated by the law, Klippert avoided any involvement in what became a growing gay rights movement.
He died of kidney failure in 1996.
“The Everett Klippert case has always stuck in my craw,” says Elliott, “I thought a terrible injustice was done to Mr Klippert. It always rankled me.”
A version of this article appeared in the October 2016 issue of Canadian Lawyer.
Geoff Ellwand is a Calgary criminal lawyer with an MA in history. A former CBC reporter, he continues to write about the law and history. Geoff is also a member of the CBA Alberta Editorial Committee, and has leant his many talents to guest-editing this edition of Law Matters.