Canada: Gender Equality

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney Dept: For good reason, Canadians are suspicious of a woman's decision to pull a veil over her face in public. The assumption is that it involved more coercion than choice. The veil represents an apparent rejection of the concept of gender equality, a core value of Canada's liberal democracy, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Reasonable accommodation is the means by which the various and competing rights of a diverse population are balanced. Indeed, this country of immigrants has learned from its reprehensible mistakes that there is greater profit in tolerance, in the ability to live alongside those with whom we might disagree vehemently. Tolerance is the foundation that supports the guarantee of rights included in Canada's charter and aMR NABIL / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES But banning the veil, or any form of female shrouding, is not just misguided, it is wrong. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's decision to prohibit those taking a vow of citizenship from wearing a niqab is neither a practical necessity nor a defence of Canada's idea of itself. The requirement to repeat the vow can easily be accommodated -- attach a microphone to the niqab -- without demanding the veil's removal. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.