Muslim Women Wearing Niqabs Should Be Identified To Vote: Charest

/rant on

Would I be allowed to vote, if I walked in wearing a bellaclava? No. One citizen, one vote. The only way to be sure, is to verifiy each citizen votes only once. If 10 women show up to vote wearing black shapless outfits, how else do you verify who they are?

/pump up the volume

Last night, Rex Murphy interviewed a fascinating lady on The National. She said something very astonishing. "Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy". She wrote a short film, where verses from the Quran deomnstrating that 'all people are equal' and 'women are subservient to men' were written on the skin of a 'dirty' woman. The director of that film, Theo Van Gogh, was stabbed to death and his murderer (after trying to sever his head) attached notes to her using knives, stabbed into the corpse.

Since she has declared herself 'athiest', she has been labeled 'fit for death' by Imams, and requires the presence of hired bodyguards.

Nice, peaceful religion we have there.

/rant off

I think this whole 'voting while anonymouse' thing is part of the 'reasonable accommodation' issue that Quebec has been struggling with. I guess we learned the limits of 'reasonable'.

I don't like the increasing anti-muslim sentiment in society today, but I do understand where it comes from. And I don't like the anti-societal rhetoric coming from Muslims ethier.

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The preceding comment deals with mature subject matter, however immaturely presented. Viewer discretion is advised.

Of course this will be another touchy subject, but I tend to agree that voting
is a privilege which must be protected from abuse. We already have situations
where people vote more than once due to inaccurate voting registration.
People are registered in two ridings etc. But proper id and being able to id the
person has to be part of the process. I don't want to see us with iris scans
and finger prints etc. This should not be a racial issue. It should be very clear,
this is how we vote in Canada. We can become to afraid to stand up for
legitimate situations because we might offend someone, but that can be
taken too far. I admit I don't know the reasons why the women wear the face
cloth, I thought it was to do with modesty etc, but voting is a rather short
process, they reveal their identity to the electoral officer, then they can put
the cloth back on. Perhaps I have mistaken the reasons behind it, but still,
one person, one vote must be ensured.

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"aaaah and the whisper of thousands of tiny voices became a mighty deafening roar and they called it 'freedom'!"' Canadians Acting Humanely at home & everywhere

With all due respect Dr C
When it comes to straight out insanity
I don't see that any race or religon has it under conrtoll
MY enemy is the ignorant
here
there and everywhere
especially within

, 'what you think about you bring about'
and that is your thinking, as expressed about "their" religion,
That'll make en friendlier! Not!

we have severity in our society too, do we not?




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"And God said: 'Let there be Satan, so people don't blame everything on me. And let there be lawyers, so people don't blame everything on Satan."

* George Bu

The small community where I live still dosen't guarantee anyone identifing me by my ugly mug. If one is to be fingerprinted, it still don't require they remain gloveless. If the identity of these women requires them to expose their features, then and only then should they be required. In a world of faceless people, there certainly isn't a major problem.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.

I don't think I understand this problem. When you vote you present your voter
registration card, and a piece of id; they take the card from you. The only
time your identity is in question is if your name is not on the voters list; then
you would need to provide photo id etc. So the majority of people would not
be required to be identified by picture id, only those who are not on the list.
So why is this a major problem? Wouldn't the woman be able to remove the
cloth in front of the one person who identifies them? Or is that also
prevented?

Perhaps the issue is being brought forward to create hostility where none
really exists or a problem doesn't exist in reality? Has this been a problem in
the past? Has any woman falsely voted or impersonated someone else in
order to vote for them? Does one woman go and vote for all the members of
her community? Is this the problem? Or is this a red-herring?

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"aaaah and the whisper of thousands of tiny voices became a mighty deafening roar and they called it 'freedom'!"' Canadians Acting Humanely at home & everywhere

You'd trust some old, myopic geezer to say you are you, even as he holds your picture ID a few millimetres from his face, then scrunches up his eyes, and tries to make your face match the pictures, tears streaming down his cheeks from the effort, obscuring even more what little vision he has left? Shouldn't there be some sort of <b><u>objective</u></b> means of corroboration? <p>But having said that, there would not be a problem, as long as the women in question unveiled themselves in the exclusive presence of another woman. It's not modesty, Catherine. It's to keep men from losing what little self-control they have, given the mere exposure of female flesh.......</p><p>---<br>"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." <br />
-Max Planck<br />
<br />

<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/03/24/muslim-veil.html">http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/03/24/muslim-veil.html</a><br />
A new Quebec election rule that requires all citizens to remove face veils if they want to vote could discourage some Muslim women from casting ballots on Monday, a Muslim woman says.<br />
<br />
"If I was wearing a face veil I likely wouldn't go and vote on Monday," Sarah Elgazzar, spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada, told the Canadian Press. "I'd be scared."<br />
<br />
Only a very small number of women in Quebec wear a face veil known as a the niqab, Elgazzar said, blaming the news media for creating a political controversy over clothing worn by Muslim women.<br />
<br />
Quebec chief returning officer Marcel Blanchet announced on Friday that anyone who wears a face covering will have to remove it in order to vote because the face of the voter must be visible.<p>---<br>"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." <br />
-Max Planck<br />
<br />

I think whelan costen is right, all you need is for the person to show id and if needed show her face to an election official, which I do believe is permitted by the religion, esp if the person is another woman for certain.

I bet the idea here is to "suggest" iris scanning or finger printing to move the national card concept along.

The comments by DC are typical of someone who is so deeply a part of his own culture that he becomes blinded by it. Does he consider our history of warfare and the millions that have been killed, maimed, and left in permanent misery for greed alone? Yes we're a peaceful fun loving bunch, sitting silent while our troops go off on a Muslim killing spree because we just want to help them become more like us (or else!).

Oh yeah, this time around is different than the last time we tried to do the same thing to the native population.

There is no Molson Canadian Religion of balaclava wearing men, though I often pine for it, so it's a bad comparison.

Similarly, that woman got airtime because she supports the Right Wing Racist Imperialist Rex Murphy's view that Islam is pure evil and needs to be blotted off the face of the earth, preferably by Holy Crusade.

No religion, other than say, Devil Worshiping, is evil in itself. It is the twisted misguided idiots who pervert it to their own ends, that give each great faith a bad name. Look at Catholicism, it's a fine religion until you tag on Spanish Inquisitions and the Vatican and witch trials.

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”

EXACTLY. I also could not understand the hullaballoo. If required, there could easily be a private area ran by women for any muslim face-covered woman who is not registered and needs to confirm photo id. I doubt there would be an endless stream of black clad muslims parading into the voting location, all refusing to identify themselves. That's the fear the media is hyping.

This is a case of a bunch of red-kneck racist Montreal men with too much time on their hands, thinking it would be funny to show up for voting with a balaclava on. The sinister part is the media and Elections Canada giving this nonsense airtime.

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”

I didn't see the piece but that very brave feminist is named Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Her story is remarkable and I recommend you look in to her further. I read "The Caged Virgin" - her latest book, which was great - a bit like Canadian Irshad Manji's "The trouble with Islam" only less shrill.

"thinking it would be funny to show up for voting with a balaclava on"

Hey you just may have given me a reason to flip off the computer and go vote next election!

The 'Bowhunting Balaclava Posse'. Think about it. We can get tossed in the slammer for Elections Act violations, release a hip-hop album or two with our newfound streetcred, then have enough to afford our own MP!


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