To hear Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan tell it yesterday, his government is only reluctantly proceeding with legislation targeting veiled voters. True, there had been no actual disputes with Muslim women over the right to vote with their faces covered. But the government needed to respond to a wave of mischief from non-Muslims showing up at voting stations with their faces covered. And, ultimately, blame rested with Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand, who ruled that existing legislation did not require voters to show their faces.
"[In September's Quebec by-elections] we saw the consequences of that decision," Mr. Van Loan told a parliamentary committee. "When people start to ridicule the rules that are in place for an election, that starts to erode public confidence in our system and I don't think we as parliamentarians can stand by and allow this to continue."
It must have been difficult for him to spew such nonsense with a straight face. Mr. Mayrand's only role was to point out that the current rules do not require visual identification - a judgment that would have provoked little controversy had parliamentarians not made political hay of it before the by-elections in a transparent attempt to pander to fears of Islam. Prime Minister Stephen Harper led the charge, accusing Elections Canada of trying to "make its own laws." Mr. Van Loan was even more pointed, alleging that "common sense is being trumped by political correctness. It's the kind of thing that results in ordinary people just shaking their heads."
All parties deserve their share of the blame. Each joined in the initial hysteria. Not one has come out against the new bill, which would prohibit veiled women from voting despite the fact Canadians living abroad can vote without even going to a polling station. The NDP indicated yesterday that it will support the bill. The Liberals have expressed misgivings, but haven't worked up the courage to oppose it. The Bloc Québécois's only apparent complaint is that the bill lets Muslim women hold out for a female electoral officer before showing their faces.
They should all be ashamed of themselves. Amid the divisive "reasonable accommodation" debate, the last thing Canada needed was this unnecessary targeting of a minority group that had done nothing to provoke it. If only parliamentarians had opted to "stand by" in the first place, this entire drama could have been avoided.
