Muslim voters required to remove face coverings
(article)

It was announced that in this Monday's election in Quebec, Muslim women who were a niqab (full headscarf that only shows the eyes) will have to come in showing their faces or will not be permitted to vote. Election officials tried to compromise by saying they could come with I.D. and someone who will vouch for their identity, but protests came from others that they will all show up in masks if this was done.

I've had a mixed reaction with this. While I understand the purpose of the niqab, as well as the frustration that others feel with rule changes, I think there's another way around this. Women wearing the niqab could possibly request a female employee from Elections Canada to be present while she presents her ID without the niqab behind a curtain of some sort, rather than just show up niqab-less. People have a difficult time accepting change, and as increasing issues arise with the mix of religion/culture with laws in Toronto, and globally for that matter, there will be more disputes.

On the one hand you have people worrying that all these 'disruptions' in the voting process are unfair to those who are not practicing Muslims because it may slow up the voting and inconvenience them. They also think that too much is being done in terms of leniency of rules to allow for people of different faiths to be included in activities. It's a "follow along or leave" attitude, which I don't agree with, but understand all the same. For these people, one exception will lead to another and another until it feels like the entire system of rules is bending over backwards to make room for the few people who need exceptions.

On the other hand, this is Canada. Back in the 70s the gates of immigration were opened and people flooded into the country, bringing with them a host of beliefs and traditions. You may not like it, but you have to at least accept it. Canada needs the population. Just recently Statistics Canada released a report that two-thirds of Canada's population growth over the past five years was fuelled by immigrant newcomers. The population has increased about 5.4% (highest of the G8 countries) while Canadians themselves continue to have a low fertility rate. This means that Canadians aren't have enough children to support the economy in the future.

Cue the immigrants, please. So - when it comes down to it, immigrants are a necessary part of a countries growth, Canadian or not. But it's foolish to accept that people will convert to Canadianism completely once they step off the plane (though I still think they should be handed a cup of Tim Horton's as they land, as part of the initiation). There will be many part of their faith/culture, something that is a part of them, that they inevitably will bring with them.

Exceptions to rules are hard because someone has to draw that chalk line somewhere. Whether it being elevators that stop at every floor in hospitals on Saturdays for the Jewish day of Sabbath or serving certain types of meals on an airline to accomodate travellers with special diets we need to make room to show respect.

These women who wear niqab may very well be born and raised Canadian citizens as well as immigrants who later earned citizenship, and to deny them practice of their faith is a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They have a right to vote as well as to wear the niqab and to deny either is unlawful leave alone immoral - these women are being asked to choose between their religious beliefs and their political and democratic beliefs. They are involuntarily being subjected to a Catch 22 situation: if you want to vote, remove the niqab; remove the niqab then you violate your beliefs.

It comes down to whether the election officials now want to help the situation or back away as briskly and calmly as possible. They are being threatened that if they allow and exception, other people will show up in Halloween style masks. But this hard-headed and misguided thinking is just what stems discrimination. If they met with some sort of compormise to allow women to wear their niqab but not "disrupt" the voting process, there should be no issues. Voters would come and go as they expected to without even knowing that a woman in a niqab was even in the room. But again, it's all a matter of wanting to help or being forced to.

What's your take on this?