(Barbados Nation) Canada has pointed a finger at Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada and their Commonwealth Caribbean neighbours, accusing them of being behind the times by keeping anti-homosexual laws on their statute books.

The complaint came from Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird, who said in London that laws in the region criminalizing homosexual activity were a “hangover” from a bygone age and urged the islands to follow in the footsteps of “progressive countries” like his own and Britain and abandon laws which stigmatize gays and trigger violence against them.

Without calling any country in the region by name, Baird told a meeting of the Commonwealth Society the laws in the English-speaking Commonwealth Caribbean needed to be changed because they encouraged gay bashing.

“Throughout most of the Commonwealth Caribbean, colonial era laws remain on the books that impose draconian punishment on gay people simply for being gay. This contributes to social stigma and violence against gay people.