The Prime Minister is on record as saying that he’s opposed to the niqab because it is “rooted in a culture that is anti-women,” and his supporters toss that phrase around to suggest that this is a man operating on principle to try to protect and honour the rights of those women. Of course, anyone who is honest about women’s rights here in Canada would agree that telling women what they are not allowed to wear is every bit as oppressive as telling them what they must wear, but let’s skip past that for a moment to look at the relationship Mr. Harper has with that “culture that is anti-women.” Canadian made military vehicles have already been used in military crackdowns on pro democracy protesters, and Canadian arms sales to Saudi Arabia grew a lot bigger in response.
If Canada sells weapons to an oppressive regime, and they use them to brutalize their own citizens, and then we respond to that by selling them a lot more, how does that fact make you feel about the Harper government’s apparent concern about “barbaric cultural practices?” Do we want Canada to be known on the international stage as a nation that empowers oppressive regimes?
http://opencanada.org/features/ten-facts-about-canadas-arms-deal-with-saudi-arabia/
Federal export law requires that in the case of arms sales to countries “with a persistent record of serious violations of the human rights of their citizens,” Canada must first obtain assurances that the goods – in this case fighting vehicles – would not be used against the buyer’s civilian population. However, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs has not done a human rights assessment of Saudi Arabia in the past two years even though Ottawa is brokering a $15-billion arms deal to sell fighting vehicles to a regime with an abysmal record for treatment of women, dissenters and offenders.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-not-tracking-saudi-rights-record-despite-15-billion-arms-deal/article24506186/
Why will Harper’s government not sign the Global Arms Trade treaty?
http://opencanada.org/features/the-think-tank/comments/why-has-canada-not-signed-the-global-arms-trade-treaty/
“Muslims make up 3.2% of Canada’s population and niqabis, women who wear the face veil, make up less than 1% of the 1.05 million Muslims in Canada. Canada’s CBC reported that out of 680,000 of people who have taken the citizenship oath since 2011, only two tried to wear the niqab during the ceremony. Still, the Conservatives have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars turning this non-issue into a viable political talking point.” It also bears mentioning that the women involved have had to remove their niqab to verify their identity earlier in the process of becoming citizens, and all the fuss is about making them expose themselves in a public ceremony that’s entirely ceremonial after already doing everything that would be necessary to be rigorous about verifying their identity.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/05/not-just-america-canadian-politicians-islamophobia-gains-polls
I believe that invoking bigoted fears of immigrants in general, and muslim refugees in particular, is a barbaric cultural practice. That won’t stop the Harper government from doing it, though. We understand of course that muslim isn’t a race, but there is a racist component in the intolerance and fear mongering that paints the world’s nearly two billion muslims as extremist villains in the most simplistic and reactionary way.
http://www.canadianprogressiveworld.com/2015/09/10/harpers-new-australian-spin-doctor-is-a-raging-anti-immigrant-racist/
Mr. Harper’s new campaign manager is not only an enormously intolerant person, he also has a history of lying to voters about refugee behaviour to sway the results of an election.
Fact check: Is Conservative spin-doctor Lynton Crosby really the worst?
The primary purpose of hitting the intolerance and fear buttons over and over again, however, is clearly to draw the attention of voters away from inconvenient facts about the current government’s record.
Some say Stephen Harper is racist. Maybe he wants you to forget about Conservative corruption?
Because have no doubt, the niqab isn’t an issue, it’s what the issues are being hidden behind.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/the-niqab-is-a-distraction-voters-should-focus-on-real-issues/article26626437/?click=sf_globefb
If this government was really concerned about the women who wear the niqab, maybe we wouldn’t be making the largest arms deal in Canadian history to a nation that violently oppresses them.
