Canada’s $145 Million LGBT Purge Settlement Paid for a Monument That Opened August 21, 2026 — but Individual Claims Closed April 25, 2019, and the Fund Behind It Must Shut by June 30, 2027

If you searched for an LGBTQ settlement in Canada after the Thunderhead headlines, here is where things stand as of October 9, 2026. The settlement behind the monument is the 2018 LGBT Purge class action against the Government of Canada, and its compensation side is finished. The claims period ran from October 25, 2018 to April 25, 2019. The deadline to opt out and sue separately was September 20, 2018. And according to the LGBT Purge Fund, “As of January 7, 2022, the Federal Court ordered that the administration of the Individual Compensation Claims Process was completed and all further obligations under the settlement agreements are terminated.” The same order discharged Deloitte, the court-appointed administrator.

What opened on August 21, 2026 is the public part of that settlement. The Fund’s announcement says Thunderhead “officially opened today in Ottawa” and “was paid for through proceeds from the 2018 class action settlement won against the Government of Canada by survivors of the LGBT Purge.” The monument does not reopen the claims process and does not pay anyone individually. The Fund says plainly: “The LGBT Purge Fund does not play a role in determining the compensation awards for Purge survivors.”

The class, as defined in the court-approved notice, covered current and former members of the Canadian Armed Forces and the RCMP, and employees of the federal public service, “who were alive as of October 31, 2016” and who were threatened with sanctions, investigated, sanctioned, discharged, fired or pushed to resign because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression between December 1, 1955 and June 20, 1996. The Fund puts the number of people harmed over those decades at more than 9,000. Far fewer could claim: the Department of National Defence reports 719 claimants — 629 military, 78 public servants and 12 RCMP.

Compensation was set by a grid, not by a share of a pool:

• Level 1, investigation and/or sanction: $5,000, raised to up to $7,500 if money was left over
• Level 2, more serious investigation and/or sanction: $20,000, up to $25,000
• Level 3, discharge or termination: $50,000, no top-up
• Level 4A, exceptional psychological harm: up to $50,000 more, augmented up to $60,000
• Level 4B, exceptional harm including physical or sexual assault: up to $100,000 more, augmented up to $125,000

The notice said “The range of Individual Compensation for most class members will be between $5,000 and $50,000.” Canada committed a minimum of $50 million and up to an additional $60 million, with total individual payments capped at $110 million. Eligible claimants received a first $5,000 as soon as their eligibility was verified; National Defence says those initial payments began in February 2019. Class counsel was paid $15 million, plus tax, separately. Beyond money, every class member could ask for the Canada Pride Citation, a personal letter of apology, copies of their records and a notation to their file. Family members of people who had died were not eligible for compensation but could apply for those recognition measures. None of the sources we read publishes the total actually paid out.

The settlement set aside between $15 million and $25 million for “reconciliation and memorialization measures.” National Defence summarizes the $145 million as up to $110 million for individual compensation, $15 million for legal fees, $5 million for external administration and $15 million for memorialization. The Fund says it received $23,713,413 in total and describes the money as “a gift from LGBT Purge victims” that stands in for compensation owed to survivors “who did not live long enough” to claim.

The Fund has four court-mandated projects: the national monument, an exhibition at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, the collection and preservation of historical records about the Purge, and inclusion training in the federal public service. Thunderhead’s design was announced as the winner in March 2022, and construction started in spring 2024. It stands beside the Ottawa River near the Portage Bridge and centres on a fractured column lined with mirrored tiles, with a healing circle of thirteen stones, a medicinal garden, a fruit orchard and a tribute circle for those who served. A Third Supplemental Agreement in January 2022 extended the Fund’s life to June 30, 2027. The Fund says it “has to wind-down and close permanently by June 30, 2027. All funds under its management must be disbursed by that date.” The Fund’s cost figure for the monument alone is not in anything we read. Secondary outlets cite $15 million, but we could not confirm that number.

If you were a claimant, there is nothing left to file. The claims period closed April 25, 2019, and the court closed the process on January 7, 2022. If you think you were affected but never filed, the settlement cannot help you now. It released Canada from claims tied to the Purge for everyone who did not opt out by September 20, 2018, so talk to a Canadian lawyer before assuming any other route exists. Class counsel were Cambridge LLP and Koskie Minsky LLP in Toronto, IMK LLP in Montreal and McKiggan Hebert LLP in Halifax. The settlement website and the Deloitte line, 1-833-346-6178, served the claims period. Since Deloitte has been discharged, do not count on those channels being staffed.

Our reading of the court’s 2022 order: a message in 2026 that offers you a new LGBT Purge compensation payment, an “updated claim,” or a fee to release money does not come from the settlement. There is no administrator left to send it. The LGBT Purge Fund runs projects and does not decide or pay compensation. To learn about the monument or the Fund, go directly to lgbtpurgefund.com or thunderheadmonument.ca rather than following a link in an unsolicited email or text.

The “$250,000 LGBTQ lawsuit settlement” in recent U.S. news is a different, single-plaintiff case in Georgia and has nothing to do with Canada. According to WTOC, the Georgia Department of Administrative Services agreed to pay $250,000 to a former Georgia Southern University director of student wellness. She sued the Board of Regents and a vice president, alleging First Amendment and Title IX violations and retaliation. She had objected after the university rejected a proposal to provide free chest binders to students and was fired in July 2025. The agreement splits the money into $144,365.36 in damages and $105,634.36 in attorneys’ fees and expenses. By our arithmetic those two figures add up to 28 cents less than $250,000, the total the settlement document gives. Both sides deny wrongdoing, and there is no class and no claim form. No one else can file for any part of it.

The Purge settlement followed the Prime Minister’s apology of November 28, 2017. The Federal Court heard the approval motion in Ottawa on June 18 and 19, 2018, and approved the settlement on June 22. For readers who search “lgbtq settlement canada” today, the timeline is the key point. The payments to individuals were made years ago. The memorial money is being spent now. The last date in the settlement is the Fund’s required closure on June 30, 2027. We will update this page if the Fund publishes final accounts or a closing report before then.