4 replies to this topic

[Rídend]

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - In a move likely to increase tension with Canada's Muslim minority, the government said on Monday it would bar all women wearing face coverings from taking part in citizenship ceremonies.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said he had received complaints from citizenship judges and parliamentarians about veiled women taking the oath to formally become Canadian.

"Requiring that all candidates show their faces while reciting the oath allows judges and everyone present to share in the ceremony," Kenney said in a speech in Montreal.

"The citizenship oath is a quintessentially public act. It is a public declaration that you are joining the Canadian family and it must be taken freely and openly."

Kenney's announcement will affect women wearing the niqab - a face veil with an eye opening - as well as the burqa, which has a full face covering with a mesh area to allow vision.

The move might well trigger a court challenge from those who say the restriction violates freedom of religion provisions under Canada's constitution.

The most recent figures from Statistics Canada show that, in 2001, around 2 percent of the population was Muslim. Community leaders say the figure now is more like 3 percent of the country's 34.5 million people.

The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations said Kenney's move questioned the sincerity and good faith of some citizenship applicants and not others.

"This decision will have a damaging effect on our democracy because it forces those who wear the niqab to choose between their religious convictions and adopting Canadian citizenship," said Ihsaan Gardee, the council's acting executive director.

In the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, where tension over the assimilation of immigrants is rising, the provincial government said last year it planned to ban Muslim women from receiving all official services if they have their faces covered.

Earlier this year, a court in France fined two Muslim women for wearing full-face veils in public, the first time a judge had imposed punishment under a "burqa ban" law.

Canada, which aims to accept around 250,000 immigrants a year, has also started cracking down on what it says are people trying to cheat the system.

Last week Kenney announced an official prove had identified 6,500 people who had obtained citizenship illegally. He also says he wants all immigrants to be able to speak either French or English, the nation's two official languages.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson-)

http://ca.reuters.co...lBrandChannel=0


Rather a surprise from the Canadian government with a snap announcement over this issue.  Now the bleeding heart liberals will begin to whine in earnest.

[Woden's Child]

The veil worn by Muslim women isn't even a requirement of their faith.

http://www.channel4....tv/4od#3266573

(video may not be available for overseas viewers).

[Rídend]

Woden, on 13 December 2011 - 02:45 AM, said:

The veil worn by Muslim women isn't even a requirement of their faith.

http://www.channel4....tv/4od#3266573

(video may not be available for overseas viewers).

Oh quite, but most don't bother to inform themselves of this fact. Instead this whole veil sham is used as an excuse to override the host culture's ways. These are the things that make up the cracks in multiculturalism...yet another -ism that has proved not to work.

[Guthlac]

They should ban it permanently.

[Sceadugenden]

It should be an overall ban in all Western nations .
In my area they only started wearing the hijab after 911 and more recently they have added the  full-on Dalek outfit. This has nothing to do with their faith, it is more the point of " We are here to stay and what are you going to do about it".