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Allahu Akbar. canada, canadian search engine, free email, canada news Saturday » October 27 » 2007 Conservatives Move To Ban Voters' Veils Legislation will close 'loophole' in Elections Act Mike De Souza CanWest News Service Saturday, October 27, 2007 OTTAWA - The federal Conservatives introduced legislation yesterday that would require every voter to show their face before casting a ballot, including Muslim women who veil themselves for religious reasons. Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said the legislation was a necessary response to fix a loophole in the Canada Elections Act which caused controversy during federal byelections last month in Quebec. "We've seen cases where people have not identified themselves, and willingly tried to deviate from electoral integrity," said Mr. Cannon, who is Prime Minister Stephen Harper's political lieutenant in Quebec. "I've been told, for instance, in one poll in St-Hyacinthe [east of Montreal], some people came in there with masks on, they came in with veils, other people came in with other ridiculous attire." Mr. Harper had pledged the legislation last week in the Speech from the Throne. Earlier this week, the Bloc Quebecois beat the government to the punch, introducing a similar proposal in a private members bill. Mr. Cannon said the Conservative version is different from the Bloc's, because it includes an exception for voters whose faces are bandaged or covered for medical reasons. Bloc deputy House leader Monique Guay said her party would likely co-operate with the Conservatives to resolve the issue as soon as possible, since a general election could happen at any time if the minority government was defeated on a confidence issue in the Commons. "We won't play petty politics with this," she said. "What we want is for everybody to be treated equally and for everybody to vote with their face revealed. We know that in Quebec, this was done in [provincial elections], the law was modified, and if there are other modifications that would be good for the voters, than we will do those [also]." If adopted, the legislation could be enforced by having Elections Canada staff take voters aside into separate rooms to show their faces before voting, but Mr. Cannon said it would be up to the chief electoral officer to decide how to apply the new rules. The Liberals and the New Democrats both criticized the legislation, although leaders of both parties have said voters should be required to show their faces. "What I don't like about this whole project is the idea that we take a bunch of women wearing veils and we make a whole big deal about this," said Michael Ignatieff, deputy Liberal leader. "They're citizens, they have to vote, they should identify themselves and then we work out how to do it ... Let's not have politicians fishing around and creating divisions between Canadians about this." NDP leader Jack Layton -- who reacted angrily last month when he learned women were not required to remove their veils to vote -- said yesterday it was not the most pressing issue, arguing there were a million people who were unable to even get on the voting list. "The so-called problem of the veils is not even a question raised by the Muslim community," Mr. Layton said. "So why didn't the government choose to settle a big problem that leaves a large number of people in rural communities and the North, for example, off of the (electoral) list, without the possibility of voting?" © National Post 2007 Close Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved. Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
