muslim women allowed to wear veil while voting

[nehemiah]

this one is for the mighty ticat.

Muslim women with their faces covered by niqabs or burkas will be allowed to vote in three Quebec federal by-elections Sept. 17 without removing them, Elections Canada said yesterday.

The women, however, will have to present a valid piece of identification with a photo and another document proving their identity. If they do not have these two documents, a woman with her face covered can have her identity confirmed by another voter in the same polling station.

Both the voucher and the vouchee would be required to make a sworn statement under oath. An elector can only vouch for one other elector.

Otherwise, they will have to show their faces, Elections Canada said in a statement.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=5d77a904-89f6-4e8a-b673-5e3f92355374

[JLB]

Is that so they can vote multiple times?

Change a color change a name hell it could even be a man. :guy:

[ticatfan3]

Only in quebec. Soon it will be driver lic with the burka on. This is going to cause nothing but trouble.

[г]

I'm indifferent to this. They made a big hoopla about it in the recent Quebec Provincial Elections when they made the same decision. It was reversed, i.e. they did require them to present their faces and then they found out there were only @ 1/2 dozen women in the whole province of Quebec that this affected. A lot of hot air over nothing.

I would say that for the whole of Canada, there might be 200-300 women max that this affects. What I found when I lived in Toronto is that most of the women that I met who wear the niqab were foreign students, mostly Indonesian who certainly wouldn't be eligible to vote.

Having said that, if you think that the geezers who staff the polling stations are checking photo ID's in all cases, then I've got the Brooklyn Bridge for sale, cheap.
I know the photo ID policy has been in place for at least the last few Federal & Provincial elections, under both Liberal and Conservative Governments, and my wife and I certainly have never been asked to produce photo ID when voting.

[ticatfan3]

SYDNEY, Australia -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper is accusing elections Canada of overstepping its boundaries by deciding that veiled women can vote without revealing their faces in upcoming federal by-elections in Quebec.

“I profoundly disagree with the decision,” Harper said on Sunday after wrapping up a summit with Pacific Rim leaders gathered in Australia. “We just adopted this past sitting in the spring, Bill C-31, a law designed to have the visual identification of voters. That’s the purpose of the law. That was the law adopted, I think virtually unanimously by Parliament, and I think this decision goes in an entirely different direction.”

He urged Elections Canada officials to reconsider their decision, suggesting that Parliament might have to force them to do so.

Elections Canada did not issue a statement Sunday, but announced Chief Electoral Officer of Canada Marc Mayrand would hold a news conference Monday in Ottawa to clarify the application of the new voter identification provisions.

Harper said the body that oversees elections has to follow rules set down by elected members.

“I have to say that it concerns me greatly, because the role of Elections Canada is not to make its own laws, it’s to put into place the laws that Parliament has passed,” Harper said. “So I hope they’ll reconsider this decision. But in the meantime, if that doesn’t happen, Parliament will have to consider what actions it’s going to take to make sure that its intentions are put into place.”

Harper’s comments joined chorus of condemnation that stretched across party boundaries back in Canada. Liberal party leader Stephane Dion said he supported mandatory visual identification, so long as a female elections officers are on hand to ensure voters’ privacy.

Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress echoed Dion’s sentiments. “We don’t want to force anybody to change their religious inclination and beliefs,” he explained, pointing out it is also important for women from religious minorities to vote. “At the same time there is a certain level of integrity in the election process that we must maintain.”

Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women agreed with the prime minister’s position, and said too much was being made of the veil issue.

“I think he’s right, I think for something like elections... women would be happy to show their faces, I don’t think it would be a problem,” Hogben said. “I think it’s being made into a problem and it doesn’t need to be.”

“For us the sad thing is it’s always focusing on Muslims and as far as I know it wasn’t a request made by Muslims,” Hogben added. “It probably came up (from) Elections Canada — with good intentions thinking they would try to accommodate people — but I don’t think it’s necessary.”

© Montreal
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070910.widentity10/BNStory/Front

[Green Lantern]

I still only have to sign my name to vote. What's up with that?

[JLB]

Canada what's going on here?:D

[г]

Elections agency firm on veils
DAVE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

--Canadian Press

Sep 10, 2007 02:21 PM
Susan Delacourt
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA - Canada's chief of elections, Marc Mayrand, has thrown the controversy on veiled voting back into the lap of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other politicians - arguing that they had ample chance to make the law clear on whether people need to show their faces at the voting booth.

Mayrand appeared this morning at a news conference just hours after Harper lambasted Elections Canada for a news release it issued last week, saying that women wearing veils for religious reasons need not shed the veil in order to cast a ballot in this month's by-elections.

Harper said he "profoundly disagreed" with that position, echoing all other party leaders who also said over the weekend that voting under a veil was at odds with their understanding of Canada's newly revamped election law.

But Mayrand hung tough at this morning's news conference, arguing that there are in fact a number of ways that people in Canada can cast federal ballots without showing their faces - voting by mail or proxy, for instance.

In the last election, 80,000 Canadians voted by mail, Mayrand noted.

"I invite Parliament to review and if it wishes to do so, amend the provisions governing the conduct of the vote in light of the many comments voiced by politicians and the public," Mayrand said - a not-so-subtle way of saying that he regarded this controversy as a creation of media and political hype.

The elections chief also pointed out that politicians had at least a couple of chances before now to make the law clear.

Last May, Mayrand said, he testified before a Senate committee and said that the law as it now stands would allow women to vote while wearing veils. Still, the law passed with no amendments in late June.

He also said that all parties participated in a conference call on July 26, in which the veiled-vote issue had arisen, and they were all informed of the way Elections Canada was planning to interpret the law.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/254941

[Julianna]

What bullshit

[Julianna]

The men should be cracked in the head with frying pans! Honestly what bull they put women through. I know I would be dead (yes I can hear the Range's applause now) because I would come after one of these bastards in a heartbeat for treating me like dirt

[ticatfan3]

Elections agency firm on veils
DAVE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

--Canadian Press

Sep 10, 2007 02:21 PM
Susan Delacourt
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA - Canada's chief of elections, Marc Mayrand, has thrown the controversy on veiled voting back into the lap of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other politicians - arguing that they had ample chance to make the law clear on whether people need to show their faces at the voting booth.

Mayrand appeared this morning at a news conference just hours after Harper lambasted Elections Canada for a news release it issued last week, saying that women wearing veils for religious reasons need not shed the veil in order to cast a ballot in this month's by-elections.

Harper said he "profoundly disagreed" with that position, echoing all other party leaders who also said over the weekend that voting under a veil was at odds with their understanding of Canada's newly revamped election law.

But Mayrand hung tough at this morning's news conference, arguing that there are in fact a number of ways that people in Canada can cast federal ballots without showing their faces - voting by mail or proxy, for instance.

In the last election, 80,000 Canadians voted by mail, Mayrand noted.

"I invite Parliament to review and if it wishes to do so, amend the provisions governing the conduct of the vote in light of the many comments voiced by politicians and the public," Mayrand said - a not-so-subtle way of saying that he regarded this controversy as a creation of media and political hype.

The elections chief also pointed out that politicians had at least a couple of chances before now to make the law clear.

Last May, Mayrand said, he testified before a Senate committee and said that the law as it now stands would allow women to vote while wearing veils. Still, the law passed with no amendments in late June.

He also said that all parties participated in a conference call on July 26, in which the veiled-vote issue had arisen, and they were all informed of the way Elections Canada was planning to interpret the law.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/254941
I will wait this one out,something is up. I think this has more to do with trying to embaress the goverment then it is with muslims.

[ticatfan3]

The thing is people can mail in there votes without being seen. But being a store owner when someone comes in with a mask on I think robbery. But what I do not like about it ,is where else where this lead to.

[TheGoodShepherd]

I don't see the big deal at all. What about mail in ballots? No one shows their faces for those.

But I guess since they're veil wearing muslim women, it's easy to pick on them.

Harper is dead wrong on this issue.

[ticatfan3]

I don't see the big deal at all. What about mail in ballots? No one shows their faces for those.

But I guess since they're veil wearing muslim women, it's easy to pick on them.

Harper is dead wrong on this issue.He is right, like I said where will this lead to. Show me where it says they have to wear them ,they don't. So really it should be a non issue. If women are wearing burkas in canada , do they because they want to , or is it wear it or I your husband will beat the shit out of you.

[г]

...

[ticatfan3]

...Come on doug ,go ahead and say it.