Anyone living in Alberta in the 1990s who half-heartedly read a newspaper will recall Delwin Vriend, a lab tech employed at King’s College. He was fired for his sexual orientation and being in a same-sex relationship.
He filed a discrimination complaint with Alberta Human Rights, but was refused on the grounds of sexual orientation was not protected under the province’s human rights code.
He sued the Alberta Government and its Human Rights Commission. In 1994 an Alberta court ruled that sexual orientation must be treated as a protected class. The provincial government appealed and in 1996 the decision was overruled by the Alberta Court of Appeal.
In a final bid for justice, the case was taken to the Supreme Court. It ruled in favour of Vriend vs. Alberta in 1998. This decision was instrumental in upholding the right of same-sex marriage in provincial cases and helped set major legal precedents in Canada and globally.
But the onslaught of both support and hate forced Vriend to move to the California where he worked in the tech sector before settling in Paris managing his own consulting firm.
Pride vs. Prejudice: The Delwin Vriend Story, a documentary which premiered in Edmonton in 2024, is quietly making rounds across North American and Europe theatres. It is being screened at St. Albert United Church on Friday, March 14 as part of P.I.E. Day.
Darrin Hagen, an actor, writer and director who broke many barriers in Canada, was offered the position of writing and directing the documentary in 2022.
“I couldn’t resist. You know I’m a history junkie and a detail junkie,” said Hagen.
He lined up questions, developed scenes and was largely blown away by the amount of material executive producer Doug Stollery brought to the project.
Back in the 1990s, Stollery was a young lawyer working pro bono with Vriend’s team. As he explains it, the team often worked at night after they completed cases that paid the bills.
“They needed somebody gay on the team and there were not many gay lawyers who were out in 1994,” said Stollery. “It was a very difficult case because no one had ever successfully argued a gay rights case before the Supreme Court of Canada and won.”
But on April 2, 1998 the Supreme Court handed down a verdict in favour of respecting the rights of everyone’s sexual orientation.
Stollery was in Ottawa at the Supreme Court buildings when the decision was handed down.
“We were all cheering, but Delwin found this extremely difficult. This had been a long and challenging journey. He had been the public face. He took lots of abuse about the case. Alberta Report had one edition picturing Delwin and a baby and asking why the charter of rights protects Delwin and not babies from abortions. What did the two have to do with each other?” Stollery stated.
Connecting all the documentary’s different scenes and interviewees was a challenge. Hagen opted to thread the scenes with a bus tour around Edmonton detailing queer history. He even interviewed Delwin Vriend on a bus tour.
“I had no idea who I would meet. He was so genuine, so brave, so courageous. At the end he was so selfless. Still after all this time, he was visibly moved. I was fully expecting rehearsed answers. But when we got to the moment the Supreme Court hands down its decision, and everyone asks where Delvin is, he and his boyfriend were sitting outside. He knew no matter what happened, there would be a backlash and media interviews,” Hagen said.
He hopes the new generation will realize how important Vriend’s battle was in solidifying 2SLGBTQIA+ human rights.
“We need to pass it on and I feel lucky to have created something to facilitate that.”
Pride vs. Prejudice: The Delwin Vriend Story is on Friday, March 14 at 7 p.m. The event is free however, donations to assist the St. Albert Pride event in June are welcome.
