Not many details on the new Tory anti-veiled-woman legislation, whichrequire[s] all voters — including veiled Muslim women — to reveal their faces before being allowed to cast ballots in federal elections.
but whether it is an honest attempt to "fix" Canada's electoral system or an excuse to hassle Muslims will depend on two things:
1) Does it require people voting by mail to visually confirm their identity? If not, the whole purpose of the legislation is defeated: how will we know that they aren't hiding their faces when they drop their ballot in the post?
2) Will the requirement to unveil be accompanied by the requirement that all voters produce photo ID? If not, then the unveiling will not serve as a means to identify the voter, but merely as a form of ritual humiliation (of Muslim women).
And I don't see how any society is going to secure the patriotism of their minority groups by picking on their womenfolk. It seems counterproductive to me.
Update: the Gov. news release is here. So far it seems to say nothing about mail-in voting and providing photo ID when casting a ballot in person. In other words, the legislation will make people remove their veils even where this at does nothing to help establish their identity.
11 comments:
Dear Muslim Women of Canada,
You are welcome to vote, but you are not welcome at the polling station.
Mail it in, we hate seeing your veil.
What matters is matching your name with your address. It matters not that a picture on a driver's licence is a faithful representation of the person about to vote. What matters is that the name and address on the documents you produce match the name and address on the list. This is pandering to - well I don't know what. Unless we get a universal voter id card, with a list that has photos of each voters in this country, this does not make any sense.
"What if she votes by mail?"
Then she needs to provided proper identification in order to get a mail in ballot.
Why are you so against this?
Show your damn face!!!
Just because the brutality of your religion in Iran, Syria, Egypt etc. forbid you from walking in public and God forbid show skin, doesn't mean you have to walk around like that here.
Conform to the western way of life or get the hell out.
Political correctness is ruining our country. Thank God for Quebec's reasonable accomidation debate!!
Dear Anon at 9:29,
You are welcome to seek the CPC nomination in my riding, if you reveal yourself instead of hiding under that tag you blog with.
We want to know who you are. If you believe in the freedom to hate, then you should reveal yourself so we can defend you to the death. This is from someone who disagrees with you vehemently.
You do know that Dion and the entire Liberal Caucus support this legislation right?
Anon at 10:48,
I know and Dion is wrong, dead wrong. He is in my bad books because of it.
As detailed on my blog, this measure violates the Charter and would not be saved by section 1 at the time time being. Because the government has not changed other aspects of electoral law, there is no rational link between the measure and the objective of improving the identification of voters.
so let her drive the school bus, that takes your kids to school.
Wearing her veil thingy with the cute little anti-mosquito screen in fornt.
Anon at 11:12
Under the reasonable accomodation debate, then having a veil woman driving a school bus, teaching in a public school, or working at the vehicle licensing office would be considered "one step too far".
I would love Harper to run on this election platform. In fact I have a perfect slogan "This Far and No Further".
I don't know about you but this is a political debate we need to have now.
BTW, please use spell check the next time.
Political correctness is ruining our country.
ZOMG! Veiled voters are ruining this country!!! If the veiled voters don't know their place, next thing you know, they'll be flying planes into buildings. That's just physics, people!!!
...No. It's far more likely that raging loonies like you could ruin this country, if you don't start taking your medication and shutting the fuck up. It's certainly not because Allyah shows up at the poll with her face covered.
The fact that there is still no coherence in voter identification legislation reveals that this is nothing but pandering to the basest instincts of people...as you have proved here.
Read Bill C-31, paragraph 21.
Photo ID is the default identification for in-person voting. What is the point of specifying "photo" ID if there is no implied visual confirmation?
Also note that the Chief Electoral Officer has the power to specify alternative identification; he isn't limited to pretending he doesn't understand that the point of photo ID is to match vitals (name, address) to a person by comparing a picture to a face.
As for the exception for mail-in ballots: imagine that we might be flexible and practical to accommodate a small number of people who can't vote in person, while insisting on verifying the identity of those who can vote in person.
lrC
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