For whom the dog whistle blows

Photo Credit Flickr s_sultana06

I've noted some anti-Muslim sentiments flowing through my Facebook newsfeed over the last few days. An uptake caused in no small measure by the Conservatives pledging to reintroduced measures to ban niqabs at citizenship ceremonies within 100 days of reelection, but also by a less than critical assessment of the worthiness of that argument and a basic ignorance of the provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

According to the Conservatives, banning the niqab means they are standing tall for women's rights against an anti-woman culture. They are doing so by forcing a woman to do something she doesn't want to do in exchange for something. In terms of women's rights, both modern and historically, think about that for a minute.

They are also making a really big deal about it, despite the fact that Muslim women make up 1.6 per cent of the Canadian population and only a tiny portion of those women wear niqabs. In a country of 35 million, it's an insignificant number. 

It's especially insignificant when compared to bigger problems, like the nine per cent of Canadians who live in poverty, a disproportionate amount of whom are single mothers and Aborigines. As of 2012, over 1.3 million of our children live in poverty, worse still, one in four of our indiginous children live in poverty, yet a veil worn by a fraction of one per cent is worthy of a federal election platform? 

This is where critical thinking needs to be applied. If you respond favorably to Conservatives dog whistle about the niqab ban, you’ve just become Pavlov's dog. Just as the dog drooled when the bell rang in anticipation of food, you’re putting support behind an insignificant policy expressly designed to divert attention away from actual issues that affect large portions of our population, like poverty, just because it coinsides with your beliefs. You are for whom that dog whistle blows.

Whilst we dabble in the cultural minutiae of win-at-all-costs election politics, we have more children living in poverty than when the Canadian government made a pledge to end child poverty 26 years ago.

Which brings me to the last bit: ignorance of the Canadian Charter. The Charter guarantees all of us

"(a) freedom of conscience and religion;

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;"

While the Charter recognizes the supremacy of god and law, it does not specify a particular god. To do so would violate our individual right to religious freedom and freedom of expression. 

If interpreted as such by the woman wearing it, a niqab is an expression of religious freedom. That's how beliefs work. You believe in something and that something becomes your belief. It may just be a belief you don't like. To that end, there’s plenty not to like in any given religion, but the Charter does not discriminate. Religious freedom under the Charter means a woman can cover her faces during a citizenship ceremony if her religious belief call her to do so (FYI once they become a Canadian citizen, that woman, like any other Canadian citizen, need never show their face to cast a ballot again, even after the Fair Elections Act). Heck, wear a pasta colander on your head and a hula skirt of wet noodles if the Pastafarian movement is what gets you through your big day.

It’s your Charter guaranteed freedom to worship or to not worship as you see fit, but don't for a second think your Charter given right to freedom of religion and of free expression gives you the right to dictate the beliefs of another, just because you like yours and you don't like theirs. It’s not your call, because that's not what the Charter sets out. 

If you don't like the niqab and you feel women are oppressed, rather than persecute the tiny segment of the female population that thinks differently than you, challenge the Charter that permits it in the first place. Seriously, pursue it like it's the last cubic metre of of air to breathe in the whole country. Just know that when you do so, you need inject those same feminist values, that same pro-woman culture, as a requirement into all other beliefs, expressions, policies, and laws in Canada. 

You do that and I will be your biggest cheerleader.