Guns and Niqabs and Tongue-In-Cheek - Premier goes on the offensive to defend his government - there is an election in the air.

By Ray Rivers

March20, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

It’s not new – this debate about that piece of face-cloth some women have to wear when they leave their domiciles. Canada’s immigration minister had ordered up veil-free citizenship services a couple of years ago, but a court had overruled him. So while the federal government is appealing the ruling, our PM has jumped in with both feet, calling the ‘niqab’ anti-woman, baiting the opposition, and driving up the volume as we move forward to this year’s election.

Is this an acceptable form of identification?

And why was this ever such a big deal? Isn’t becoming a citizen a prelude to being able to hold a Canadian passport? As with a drivers’ licence or a health-care card, don’t passport requirements include a full-face photo. That means that if the new citizen wants only to be able to travel, she’d need to drop her veil at least twice – once to get the photo and again to board the plane, so what is the big deal at the citizenship office.

On the other hand there is no longer a debate in France. Wearing the ‘niqab’ (or the even more extreme ‘burka’) in public places was banned outright a few years ago. And Quebec’s PQ government was ready to follow that European country’s lead before they were toppled by the provincial Liberals last year. Banning the public display of a cultural icon might be seen as racist under most definitions of the term, but the French law has withstood scrutiny by the European Commission.

While I’m pretty cool with how anyone decides to dress, I’d be a little uncomfortable boarding a plane knowing that another passenger boarded without a confirmation of her facial identity. So perhaps the PM came to the right conclusion but for the wrong reason.

Election Canada official raiding the Conservative Part offices in Ottawa – just politics?

Or maybe he’s just playing politics. And who could blame him for looking for diversions. First of all he wants to extend the ISIS mission, even into Syria, and that smells like an invasion. But even worse, this decision is being made just as we’re putting to rest one of our own – a military trainer – supposedly not involved in direct conflict, but who was killed while serving on the front line.

And then, having jumped the gun and announced an income-splitting tax break for the wealthy, the PM now finds himself unable to afford it. His promised election year balanced budget is evaporating faster than the price of oil and the Canadian dollar are falling. So the PM is stalling, hoping and waiting for a miracle.

But Harper doesn’t need a miracle, he is a shrewd tactician and knows that there is no defence like an offence. And what could be more offensive than attacking new Canadians for their little cultural niceties which most of us don’t really even want to understand. If the ‘niqab’ is anti-woman, what does that say about the person wearing the garb?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper expounding on a policy.

And then there is this recent gun narrative in which the PM seemed to be telling folks to go ahead and use your guns instead of waiting for the police. If this was a message to his base, or a call for funding from the gun organizations and companies, you can bet it worked. And then just to placate those nervous 905’ers, he now claims he was mis-interpreted. It’s an old trick, and he is performing it brilliantly.

Had his new anti-terrorist act, Bill C-51, been the law of the land, the recent terrorist scenarios we experienced would still have taken place The bill is a Trojan-horse, an excuse for the government’s security failures. It is disguised as an anti-terrorism weapon, but is really just another roadblock to freedom of expression and the curtailment of other civil liberties. The right-wing generally sees itself as a strong advocate of free speech… but then it really depends on what is being said, doesn’t it?

So what is next on the PM’s offensive agenda. So far he has stayed away from capital punishment and a woman’s right to choose. Indeed he has been consistent in dodging these topics, despite the pressure he must be getting from some of the really regressive members of his party and caucus.

The French banned skinny models appearing at fashion shows – they also banned certain types of head dress. Is Canada going to restrict what people can wear at public events? Should a full face be revealed for the purposes of identification when boarding an aircraft or appearing in a court room?

So perhaps he might want to try something completely different. The French seem to have settled on going after super-skinny models for their next social mission. Banning them from fashion shows and off the runways until they ‘fatten-up’. Of course this might just be a ploy to reduce the huge quantity of surplus French agricultural produce. I wonder if that would also work here to help out oil-depressed Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran as a Liberal against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province.

Background links:
Passport Requirements    French Ban     Harper’s Rant

More Harper’s Rant      Harper and Guns      Super-Skinny