Women are seen wearing the niqab.

(AP / Muhammed Uraibi)
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Elections Canada to speak out about veiled voters

Updated Mon. Sep. 10 2007 8:11 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff

Elections Canada will speak out about its recent decision to waive visual identification for veiled voters late Monday morning after coming under harsh criticism from politicians and Muslim groups alike.
Officials have scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. ET.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper blasted Elections Canada Sunday for going against a parliamentary ruling by allowing Muslim women to wear veils and burkas while voting.
The move goes directly against a unanimous vote in the House of Commons this past spring to make visual identification mandatory when casting a ballot.
"I profoundly disagree with the decision," Harper told reporters in Sydney, Australia where he was wrapping up the APEC summit. "We just adopted this past sitting, in the spring, Bill C-31, a law designed to have the visual identification of voters. That's the purpose of the law.
"That was the law voted virtually unanimously by Parliament and I think that this decision goes in an entirely different direction," he continued.
The Elections Canada ruling was prompted by three upcoming byelections in Quebec on Sept. 17 in ridings that are significantly multi-cultural.
Speaking with Canada AM Monday, a spokeswoman with the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations called the move "unnecessary. "
"Women who wear any niqab, as a matter of principle, always remove it to identify their faces," said Sarah Elgazzar in an interview from Montreal. "It's something that's always been done. They identify themselves at border crossings, when they get their passports -- on their photo ID, their faces are showing."
People who wear the face coverings generally don't object to identifying themselves, Elgazzar said, and that's why a ruling like this only creates a false impression of Muslim women.
"All of this controversy kind of just stigmatizes this population of people who are assumed not to be complying but have already been complying for a number of years now," she continued. "It was perhaps a goodwill gesture but it was very unnecessary and has caused more harm than good."
Liberal Opposition Leader Stephane Dion told reporters in Vancouver Sunday there could be some compromise. As an example, he said female officials with Elections Canada could be on hand at polling stations, to identify women behind their veils.
"We disagree with the Elections Canada decision and we ask them to revisit their decision," he said. "It's important to identify the person. It may be done in a very respectful way, but it must be done."