Harper is CAMPAIGNING like this is the most important issue.
That’s the point.
He could have ignored it today. He did not. He doubled down. He released more attack ads that bring it up.
He has TRIED to campaign on the economy. Nobody bought it. He brought in Lynton Crosby to his campaign, who specializes in demonizing minorities. Now suddenly the campaign has switched to demonizing minorities. Coincidence?
Harper is a sick fuck, who would do anything to anyone to get elected. He has no moral core whatsoever.
And he’s not campaigning like this is the biggest issue. Stop frothing at the mouth over nothing.
Federal emplyees are required to wear and display photo identification. How on earth is anyone supposed to verify the identity of someone with her face covered? Someone who could possibly have access to confidential records.
I would certainly be able to recognize someone I know well wearing a niqab. It’s not like they’re wearing masks and hoods. An acquaintance or a casual friend, would be difficult, and a stranger probably impossible for me.
Here’s the thing, though: how often do important decisions come down to scrutinizing a person’s face in order to verify her identity? How often, if ever, has anyone used the niqab to gain access to somewhere they shouldn’t?
You can get anywhere with the combination of a delivery / maintenance uniform and / or clipboard and a confident walk. I don’t see anyone worrying about these. I just don’t understand why I NEED to see a woman’s mouth in order to be able to identify her, or frankly why the general public needs to identify her at all.
From reading the on-line Globe and Mail, and especially the comments on the articles, I find that hard to believe. I’m not disagreeing with you because I have no idea who they have previously endorsed. I do find it hard to believe though.
No. Of course not, but people who comment tend to flock to media outlets with whom they agree. It surprised me that the Globe would endorse the Conservative party given the readers’ absolute hatred of the party. And to be honest the articles and editorials have always seemed to me to reflect a left-leaning bias. Most commenters seem to agree with the editorial slant in the Globe. It seems strange to me that they endorse the Conservatives.
When I read comments in the Sun group of papers they’re more aligned with my viewpoint, and the Sun papers are no doubt right-leaning.
The Globe for the most part is news with some opinion, usually right leaning, but in some periods left leaning. Either way, it is basically sane.
The Sun is BLARGsenBLARGsaBLARGtionBLARGalBLARGismBLARG with some BLARGscreamBLARGingBLARGoBLARGpinBLARGionBLARG, a bit of news and BLARGtitsBLARGsun’sBLARGgotBLARGtitsBLARG.
Most Southerners thought segregation was great. Who cares what the majority thinks? Smart people aren’t populists.
Whether the stupid niqab is the biggest Tory issue or the third biggest, they are blowing it up into an issue thousands of times more important than it is. It is simply not important. And the reason they’re doing it is to leverage racism and xenophobia to get votes, and you damn well know I’m right.
And as Leaffan’s linked article notes, this is yet another example of the Harper government wanting to pass a law with no chance of passing legal muster. But hey, at least he’s trying! Right, Leaffan? Trying to pass clearly unconstitutional laws year after year doesn’t shake your trust in the Conservatives, right?
Postmedia is the extreme right-wing publishing company that owns the Sun chain and, thanks to the Tories who never met an anti-competitive law they didn’t hate, every onetime competing newspaper in every Western Canadian city in which the Sun exists, with the exception of Winnipeg.
[del]The Tory party organ’s[/del] Postmedia’s polls would have 61 per cent of the population voting for Attila the Hun.
Steve Paikin of TVO had a round table discussion on this very topic this evening. Seems the Tories are pushing what they consider “women’s rights” issues, when they don’t even ask the women wearing the niqab what they think.
Spokeswomen for this group says the Tories are laughable. Well over 95 per cent of the women who wear the garment do it out of choice. Some of them are even converts to conservative Islam.
The bottom line is who the hell cares what a woman wears ? That should be her decision and hers alone. Does it affect me? It does not.
But Harper said “We’ve said we’ll take a look at that bill before taking further steps. The Quebec government, I believe, has been handling this controversial issue in a very responsible manner and we will do exactly the same things, the same thing in Ottawa.”
But what the hell, it is completely against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which implicitly states that freedom of religious practices must be protected. That Charter, that many Canadians hold dear, is to guard against the majority running roughshod over minority rights. Harper is bullying conservative women by denying their religious freedom. It is completely at odds with what a Prime Minister should do, he should not be using “popular thought” against a religious group. He’s using the race card to get votes and it’s ugly. Some of these women now do not feel safe in their own country. Harper needs to stop. It’s shameful.
I have long felt that the “idea” of Canada will continue no matter who is in power.
Canada is a “rule of law” state, which means that there are a number of checks and balances that make sure that the government (whatever party makes it up) does not get out of line. Harper, for all his faults, is no more a dictator than PET was in the early 1980s–in other words, many Canadians in those days felt the Government wasn’t listening to them, and the PMO was ruling without consulting Parliament. Anybody remember the “Salmon Arm Salute,” or “Six and Five”? Yeah, those were Liberal initiatives. And they did not turn out well. Hell, in those days, “Orders in Council” were dirty words, because PET used those to push through legislation that would not pass Parliament.
The accusations of “Dictator!” were hurled at PET then, just as they are at Harper now. Both accusations have justifiable grounds–I well remember friends who disagreed with Trudeau worried about when they’d be locked up in concentration camps. Just like the anti-Harper people fear now. Of course, nothing happened in that regard then, and it will not happen now–the Charter prevents such. We do not arrest political dissidents in Canada, and no matter how much the anti-Harper crowd wishes it were so (in order to prove their point), we will not.
But as I said, the “idea” of Canada is larger than Harper, Trudeau, or Mulcair. We will survive, no matter who is elected. As long as Canada remains a “rule of law” state, and our Supreme Court assures that (as it must), we will survive, no matter who makes up our next government.