News item: Ignatieff backs Quebec veil ban. Of course he does. Pandering to the xenophobia of the dominant culture, is a vote winner, every time. The only thing that surprises me is he beat both Harper and Layton to the punch. I mean, none of them have a stellar record protecting the rights of women to dress as they like, do they?
Saturday Update: Well, now that Harper is fully on board with the other fashion policeman (as if there was any doubt), only Layton is yet to be heard from. I expect he will be yelling "Me too!", any time now.
Added Saturday Thought: Now that the government is getting into outlawing women's clothes, I would like to nominate anything tie-dyed to the list.
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Given that 95% of Quebeckers are on one side of the issue, along with 75% of ROCers, it's pretty clear why Ignatieff and Harper jumped the way they did.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I think that you ought to be able to walk around with a paper bag over your head with two eye-holes cut (which, let's be honest, is more or less what a niqab is). But it creeps me out in a way that, say, a turban or your standard-issue hair cover for Muslim or orthodox Christian females does not.
I wouldn't have legislated it. I'd probably have left it to individual bureaucrats to figure out how most effectively to identify citizens seeking government services, and backed up what they decided to do.
Oh, there's the stat:
ReplyDeleteBloc Québécois supporters favoured the bill most (95 per cent), along with Conservatives (86 per cent) and Liberals (81 per cent). Three-quarters of NDP supporters agreed with the bill.
If Jack doesn't jump on-side... well, it certainly won't be pandering to his base.
Given that 95% of Quebeckers are on one side of the issue, along with 75% of ROCers, it's pretty clear why Ignatieff and Harper jumped the way they did.
ReplyDeleteYup, as I said, pandering to xenophobia works a treat. Just ask Slobodan Milošević.
Well, Ignatieff's the big Yugoslav expert.
ReplyDelete(Seriously.)