Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly has ordered the summons of Oleg Stepanov, the Russian ambassador to Ottawa, to protest anti-gay tweets posted by his embassy, ​​one of which targeted Canadian Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge, who is openly gay.

And the tweets, which were published by the official account of the Russian embassy on the “Twitter” site, came in the midst of the State Duma’s approval last week of a bill banning any “propaganda” of homosexuals or “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” in the media, on the Internet, in books, or in films. Regardless of the age of the target audience with these media.

The text of the new law clarified that propaganda means publishing information or performing acts of an overt nature aimed at creating non-traditional sexual attitudes and working to promote them, as well as distorting the idea of ​​social parity and traditional sexual relations.

And advertising among adults was sanctioned, that is, all Russian citizens, regardless of age, were banned.

The amendments made in the second reading of the draft law included the expansion of the fines article to include encouragement of sex change.

It is all about family.

Family is a man and a woman and children.

pic.twitter.com/zJeONBDq0J

— Russia in Canada (@RussianEmbassyC) November 25, 2022

The bill, which will now go to the Federation Council and beyond for the president's signature, would ban not only gay propaganda, but also pedophilia, and information encouraging teens to change their sex.

Criticize Russia

"The Russians have once again chosen hate propaganda," said Emily Williams, a spokeswoman for the foreign minister. "This is an assault on Canadian values ​​of acceptance and tolerance."

The Russian embassy's tweets included an image of a rainbow flag crossed out with a red line and the words, "It's all about the family. The family is a man, a woman and children."

The Russian embassy also attacked the Canadian Minister of Sports, who is openly gay and has previously denounced what it called "Russian anti-gay propaganda."

St-Onge said, "The way gay people are treated in Russia is a stigma and an attack on basic human rights."

Madame, with all due respect to your opinion, will you, please, explore and explain how you appeared in this world?

https://t.co/4lawldBWiF pic.twitter.com/l4kCzDfvzV

— Russia in Canada (@RussianEmbassyC) November 26, 2022

And the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that "we cannot tolerate this letter, nor the comments about Minister St-Onge."

In an email to AFP, St-Onge said she was "deeply offended by the Russian ambassador's message against homosexuals while he is still on Canadian soil".

She added that these tweets constitute "an affront to the hard-won rights of the entire LGBT community," she said.