First, the lead-in (emphasis added):
Ottawa keeps up veil offensive
Records show government officials knew ballots could be cast with faces covered
DANIEL LEBLANC
With a report from Campbell Clark
September 12, 2007
OTTAWA -- The Harper government continued attacking Elections Canada yesterday, even though records clearly show top government officials were aware last May that a revamped Elections Act allowed voters to cast ballots with facial coverings.
Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan told reporters that Elections Canada is going "against the clear intent" of the Elections Act by stating that the law, as passed by Parliament last June, does not force voters to show their faces.
However, a senior bureaucrat told senators last May that the Elections Act, which was going through Parliament at the time, indeed allows voters to keep facial coverings if they have two non-picture IDs or someone else to vouch for them.
"Neither requires removal of a veil," Matthew King, assistant secretary for legislation at the Privy Council Office, told senators.
Mr. Van Loan had been a witness alongside Mr. King at that Senate committee hearing on May 10, although he left before Mr. King commented specifically on veils.
Mr. Van Loan insisted yesterday that Parliament never expected that voters would be allowed to cast a ballot wearing a niqab or burka.
It's not that Van Loan is a total imbecile. After all, he's a Tory -- it goes with the territory. No, what's grating is that there will be more editorials discussing this non-issue, but not one of them will eviscerate this idiocy with the withering contempt it deserves.
We don't need journalistic decorum. We need someone, somewhere, in the mainstream media, to finally have had enough and write something like:
Veils, voters and vacuous idiocy
At the risk of offending, what the fuck is wrong with you people!?!? What part of the clearly-written Act do you just not get?
How many times do we have to point out the screamingly obvious? M. Mayrand is right. You are wrong. So stop it. Really, just fucking stop it! You are all acting like retards and making Canadians look like a bunch of comtemptible buffoons and racists.
So knock that shit off!!
Retards, the lot of you.
If any of the above shows up in an editorial somewhere, I expect attribution.
3 comments:
Actually, La Presse had a very scathing editorial by André Pratte in this morning's paper.
Cynic, I watched CPAC coverage today at lunch, and they had a few rep groups testifying that are directly involved i.e Canadian Council of Muslim Women and to a person they said this is a huge non issue, they do not need an accommodation, there is nothing in their religion that prevents them from un-veiling for identification purposes such as this and they personally do not want to see this exception being made as it will only lend credence to other acception's being made. The only reason this story has legs at all is all four political parties made it one.
1) In the whole history of Canada there is not a single recorded instance of a Muslim woman refusing to lift her veil at the polls.
2) Van Loan voted for this Elections Act - twice.
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