It takes them a while but, eventually, the MSM comes toddling along to catch up with the smart folks. Here's The Globe and Mail (all subsequent emphasis added):
... If the system for verifying a voter's identity with written identification or sworn statements is considered good enough for other Canadians, it should be good enough for those who cover their faces for religious reasons. That is why Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand says he will permit veiled women to vote as long as their identity can be confirmed. He was not making a special accommodation. He was applying the law as it stands.
Mr. Harper surely knows what that law says. His government passed it with opposition support earlier this year. He also knows that eligible voters living temporarily abroad may vote by mail; they do not show their face, except to a mailbox. Yet on the weekend in Sydney, he accused Mr. Mayrand of defying the will of Parliament. "The role of Elections Canada is not to make its own laws." This false accusation against an independent Officer of Parliament smacks of intimidation.
And The Star comes bouncing along behind:
Why are Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and a host of other politicians criticizing Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand for not enforcing the new voter identification rules at the polls – when he is in fact upholding those rules?
So I'm sure it's only a matter of time before all the shrieking Blogging Tories identified back here will sheepishly roll over to their keyboards and apologize to one and all for their high-pitched hysterics.
After all, that would only be the right thing to do.
GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST! Even the National Post has a rare moment of lucidity:
Indeed, as Mr. Mayrand told reporters at a press conference yesterday, 80,000 Canadians voted by mail during the last election -- a process that obviously does not permit electoral officers to see a voter's face. People wearing bandages on their faces are also permitted to vote. Moreover, the law permits Canadians to vote in person even if they do not have photo identification, providing they take an oath and have a neighbour vouch for them.
I believe our work here is done, at least until the next outbreak of irrational, right-wing hysteria. And if history is any judge, I wouldn't get too comfortable.
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