Court rejects bid to delay niqab ruling

Decision may give Muslim woman a chance to vote

OTTAWA— A new court ruling means a devout Muslim woman who chooses to cover her face now has a chance to become a Canadian and vote in the Oct. 19 federal election.

The Federal Court of Appeal rejected Monday a government request to put a recent decision in favour of Zunera Ishaq on hold while Ottawa seeks a hearing in the Supreme Court of Canada.

Justice Johanne Trudel dismissed the government’s application for a stay of a Sept. 15 decision that affirmed the unlawfulness of a federal rule prohibiting a niqab at a citizenship ceremony.

Ishaq, 29, came to Ontario from Pakistan in 2008.

She refused to take part in a citizenship ceremony because she would have to show her face due to a December 2011 policy requiring candidates who wear full or partial face coverings to remove them during recitation of the oath.

The Federal Court of Canada found the rule unlawful in February and the Court of Appeal recently upheld the decision. A three-judge panel ruled from the bench immediately after a hearing, saying they wanted Ishaq to obtain citizenship in time to vote.

On Monday, Trudel said she could not agree to the federal request for a stay of the appeal court’s mid-September ruling.

“I find that the appellant has not demonstrated that refusing his application for stay would result in irreparable harm to the public interest,” she wrote. “This suffices to dispose of the appellant’s motion for stay.”

The issue of face coverings at citizenship ceremonies has become a highly divisive one on the federal election trail, generating sparks in two French-language debates.