Tempest in a Teapot
I was already under the impression that this whole "veiled voting" thing was being blown way out of proportion, but it's nice to have a mainstream columnist show just how ridiculous the situation really is.
The other problem legislators have recognized is there really isn't much of a problem.
More than 80,000 Canadians voted in the last election by mail-in ballot, no facial recognition required.
As numerous Muslim groups have been quick to point out in the past few days of controversy, there are maybe 50 women in all of Quebec who wear the eyes-only niqab.
And all of them, we are told, are used to showing their faces at banks and other places that require official identification.
Lift the veil on this issue and the problem is entirely in the eyes of beholders.
Oh, and to add a little context about Harper's ranting against Elections Canada,
"I profoundly disagree with the decision," Harper reportedly said at the end of his recent meetings with Pacific Rim leaders in Australia.
"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 in place the laws that Parliament has passed. So I hope they'll reconsider this decision."
Otherwise, the PM warned, "Parliament will have to consider what actions it's going to take to make sure that it's intentions are put into place."
. . .
One of the reasons ordinary folk might be confused is that most of the aforementioned commentary from Harper et al is at best misinformed.
Elections Canada didn't "decide" anything new.
In response to inquiries from reporters covering the federal byelections, the agency simply reiterated the government's "statutory requirements regarding the identification of electors wearing face coverings."
Far from the federal electoral office "making its own laws," as the PM claims, it is simply enforcing changes to the Elections Act passed by Harper's own government last year.
. . .
If the prime minister "profoundly" disagreed with that decision, as he now says, he forgot to mention it at the time his government was passing the legislation.
Of course, back then, the Conservatives weren't being investigated by the Elections commissioner for their campaign spending. Harper now has some motivation to make the organization look bad.
