Author Topic: Canadian election agency urged to check veiled women  (Read 502 times)

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Canadian election agency urged to check veiled women
« on: September 10, 2007, 12:18:09 AM »
By Randall Palmer
Fri Sep 7, 7:36 PM ET
 


OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's three largest political parties called on the agency that runs federal elections on Friday to reverse its decision to allow Muslim women to stay completely veiled when voting.

"It just doesn't make sense," federal Conservative Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said of the decision by Elections Canada not to require voters to show their faces to election officials when establishing their identities.

"Common sense is being trumped by political correctness. It's the kind of thing that results in ordinary people just shaking their heads," he said in a statement.

The two largest opposition parties, the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois, also called for the federal agency to require all voters to show their faces.

The fourth party in the House of Commons, the leftist New Democratic Party, declined to join the other parties, saying if there were irregularities it would file complaints.

The issue came to a head this week as Elections Canada disclosed that it would allow voters wearing the burqa or niqab to have someone else vouch for them or present extra identification, while still staying covered.

Advanced voting in three elections to fill vacancies in the House began on Friday, and it was the first time new federal legislation requiring better identification was being applied.

In a provincial election in Quebec earlier this year, the authorities there had at first allowed veiled voters to stay covered but then reversed the decision after a public outcry.

Elections Canada had no immediate response to the calls.



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