The Conservative Party is obsessed with the niqab, the face covering veil a very small minority of Muslim women choose to wear.
In 2011, then-Immigration Minister Jason Kenney introduced a new policy that, when taking the citizenship oath, face-coverings must be removed.
That led to a lawsuit by Zunera Ishaq, a Pakistani woman, who agreed to unveil herself privately to an immigration official before taking her citizenship test, but objected to uncovering for the public ceremony.
While the ban on face-coverings is almost certainly unconstitutional, in February, Federal Court Judge Keith Boswell didn’t even refer to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms issue when he ruled policy was simply unlawful because Kenney did not have the legal authority to impose it.
That did not stop the Conservative government from doubling down. It launched an appeal and just before Parliament broke for the summer, introduced new legislation that would enshrine the policy in law. That, of course, died on the order paper when Parliament was dissolved for the election.
Last week, a tribunal of the Federal Appeals Court upheld Boswell’s ruling, again without dipping into the Charter issues.
Basically, by law, a citizenship judge “must allow the greatest possible religious freedom when administering the oath” according to the ruling from the bench. A judge would not be able to do that if a policy requires the candidate to violate a basic tenet of their religion.
There are, of course, debates within the debate whether the niqab is truly a tenet of Islam and whether the women are really free to choose whether or not to wear it.
That, frankly, is none of anybody else’s business. Religious freedom is religious freedom and, as long as the woman herself believes this is what she wants to do, that is her prerogative.
Stephen Harper disagrees, he says wearing the niqab at a citizenship ceremony is “offensive” and “contrary to Canadian values.”
Unfortunately for niqab-wearing women, while it is actually the niqab ban that is offensive and contrary to Canadian values, it is not contrary to the opinion of a majority of Canadians.
Harper has vowed to appeal the appeal court’s decision to the Supreme Court and promised to bring back the citizenship bill within 100 days of a new mandate.
This has some pundits scratching their heads.
“Mr. Harper has never had a valid argument—legal, social or otherwise—for pursuing this issue so doggedly,” the Globe and Mail editorialized on September 17. “It’s puzzling why he is still at it.”
I don’t think it is puzzling at all because it is not about the law and it is not about the Charter. It is not even about the niqab.
It is about politics. Stephen Harper has tapped into a dark corner of the Canadian psyche that transcends political boundaries. The niqab is simply a proxy for a generalized distrust of Islam that allows Harper to look tough on terrorism and, by inference, make his opponents who agree with the courts, look soft.
As a symbol of conservative religiosity and oppression of women, whether it truly is a tenet of Islam or not, the niqab is offensive to many of our western values. However, nobody gets to choose who our guaranteed freedoms apply to and who they don’t, not even the prime minister.
Either we believe in freedom of religion or we don’t. Pauline Marois found that out the hard way when she tried to ban all forms of religious expression within the Quebec public service.
Harper, I think, is also going to find out that, while a majority agree with him on the ban, it is not going to be a ballot box question and on virtually every other issue, he is out of step with the population.
