Niqab ban is ‘playing with fire’: Nenshi
The real danger is this ‘medieval tribal custom,’ Jason Kenney fires back
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Defence Minister Jason Kenney became embroiled in a war of words on Thursday after Nenshi called the Conservative government’s ban on face coverings at citizenship ceremonies “disgusting,” adding: “It is time for us to say this is enough.”
In an interview Wednesday with SiriusXM radio host Evan Solomon, Nenshi — Canada’s first Muslim big-city mayor — blasted the federal government’s fight against a handful of Islamic women who want to wear the niqab while swearing their citizenship oath.
Nenshi argued the government is “playing with fire” and wasting taxpayers’ money.
“This is unbelievably dangerous stuff. I spoke with a group of mayors and councillors from all over Alberta last week. ... I stood up and said this is disgusting and it is time for us to say ‘Stop it,’ ” Nenshi said.
“I thought people would throw buns at me, but in fact I got wild cheers from these smalltown Alberta folks.”
Kenney fired back on Thursday. “It seems to me that it’s the mayor and people like him who are politicizing it. I don’t think this should be an issue of contention,” he said when asked about the mayor’s stance.
“If anything’s dangerous, it would be legitimizing a medieval tribal custom that treats women as property rather than people,” said Kenney, who is running for re-election in the riding of Calgary Midnapore.
In September, the Federal Court of Appeal sided with a previous ruling from a lower court that struck down a government policy banning face coverings during citizenship ceremonies.
It has since cropped up as a political wedge during the election campaign, with the Conservatives promising to take the matter to the Supreme Court and, if elected, to introduce legislation to turn the policy into law.
Citing the Federal Court of Appeal decision, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau have both said it is up to each woman to decide whether to wear a covering.
Nenshi accused the Conservatives of spending millions of dollars of “your and my money” on a legal appeal that he believes will not succeed.
“If you’re doing it so you can gain a few points somewhere in rural Quebec, well, I expect more from my leadership than that,” he said.
Coincidentally, the face-covering ban came under criticism in Quebec on Thursday, when a motion “condemning Islamophobia and calls for hatred and violence toward Quebecers of Muslim faith” passed unanimously in the National Assembly.
The motion was tabled by Québec solidaire coleader Françoise David. “You read messages on social media and you see many images that are really racist and Islamophobic,” she said, adding that she thought the federal debate around the niqab was not helping.
On Tuesday, the Journal de Montréal reported that Oumessad Khoufache, 31, was walking in Anjou to get her daughter, when two teenagers pulled at her hijab, making her fall.
David took to the airwaves Wednesday evening to plead with Quebecers to calm down. “I can’t just sit in my home and say there’s no problem there. It’s impossible for me. I would act the exact same way if other people from other communities, or homosexuals, experienced that kind of attack,” she said.
Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil said she supported the motion wholeheartedly. “I think what’s important is that governments and elected officials, people who represent a society that respects the rights and liberties of its citizens, that respects the foundations of a democracy, they act responsibly when these things happen, and I think this was a gesture of responsibility,” she said.