The Hippie’s put in a lot of effort to decriminalize homosexuality and make Canadians realise that love being gender-blind was not equivalent to pedophilia as people at the time considered it to be . The Hippies took the inspiration for their tolerant views from the Beat Generation Literary movement of the 30’s-50’s which expressed themselves through literary/artistic means . Main elements of the Beat movement involved drug experimentation and different forms of sexuality (particularly homosexuality) . Elements of this movement became an integral part of the Hippie Culture as they supported the gay rights movement stemming from England in the late 60’s (Richards, N.A) . Pierre Trudeau’s omnibus Bill C-150 passed in 1969 which decriminalized homosexuality and legalized abortion proved that the Hippie’s cry to accept different sexualities had finally reached the ears of the liberals , as it became evident that these new laws would be beneficial to Canadian society as a whole ( promotes acceptance and women's rights) (CBC Archives,1969) …show more content…
The Vietnam War was another major political/social issue occurring at this time . North America was outraged by America’s involvement in such a violent war ( they contributed to the deaths of many people ) and Hippies took this opportunity to express views of pacifism and nonviolence . Many American hippies fled to Canada during the Vietnam war as they were upset that U.S.A had broken their policy of isolationism to assert themselves as a world force by invading North Vietnam (Turner,2012) . Although the war caused conflict back at home , many young men/women were ready to enlist for the same reasons ( being a hero , patriotism ) that they enlisted for the previous world wars . As the years went on and the death toll increased , people realised that war was not something to be romanticised . The Hippies strongly supported this belief as they opposed America’s involvement in Vietnam by holding non-violent sit ins unlike other violent protestors who would attempt assassinating politicians or committing serious crimes