How we swim in Canada
“This is not how we swim in Canada,” said the elderly man to a mom supervising her two kids at a local condo pool.
The woman, a public school teacher who had come to see me in order to file a human rights complaint, had been living in Canada for more than 35 years.
She knew perfectly well how things were done here. He had different ideas.
The man asked them to leave the Scarborough pool because my client’s son and daughter (both under 10) were wearing long shorts and T-shirts.
The single mom advised the man their outfits were made of swim material and she would not be leaving.
The man became irritated and mumbled something about people bringing their ways and changing this country. He insisted they leave and added her daughter should be wearing a bikini, not shorts and a T-shirt. According to this champion of Canadian values, her son was properly attired but her daughter was overdressed. The hijab-wearing woman quickly walked over to the service counter and complained.
To her dismay the young man at the desk told her he was sorry but she needed to leave. The woman stood her ground, arguing she would take this up with management.
The attendant sheepishly told her the man asking her to leave was the “boss.” In fact, he was the president of the condominium board.
It was a shocker for me to hear about the man’s confidence in imposing his views on others in the heart of multicultural (or more accurately, immigrant dominated) Scarborough.
Yet, this was not my first time hearing about or experiencing the dress and belief police. They are active all over the world. In fact, I had been to Saudi Arabia on numerous occasions before (and since) this incident and had encountered the mutaween (religious police). They forced people to pray and harassed women to cover up. Just last year while on umrah (minor pilgrimage) I noticed the same mutaween, but thankfully more restrained this time (though this may have been just my impression).
Earlier this year, Tehran announced its Gashte Ershad (“guidance patrol”) had its mandate expanded. The city’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Sajedi Nia, said “noise pollution, unsafe driving, disturbing girls and incorrect hijab” would be punished. This is reportedly a common announcement before the summer months, but this year the 7,000-strong force would be undercover with powers to enforce dress codes and even impound cars if occupants are not sufficiently covered.
While religious police in Muslim lands are busy enforcing dress codes, conduct and rituals, the secular police clearly don’t want to be outdone. Recently, Swiss authorities rejected the naturalization application of two Muslim girls (ages 12 and 14) who refused to take swimming lessons with boys. Their father was also fined 4,000 swiss francs for their refusal.
Barely three months before, Switzerland suspended the citizenship process of a Muslim family after their two sons refused to shake the hands of female teachers. Their understanding of Islamic norms precluded them from having physical contact with women outside their immediate family. The authorities would have none of that. Freedoms were not worthy if they came with a religious tag.
Meanwhile, in France around the same time, a teenage Catholic girl who converted to Islam, K. De Sousa, was banned from a Paris school because her skirt was too long. It was an “ostentatious religious symbol” — prohibited in state schools since 2004. Long skirts worn as a fashion statement are fine, but if worn out of religious conviction then secularism would be threatened.
Even in the bastions of secularism, fanaticism is alive and well. Indeed, secular fanatics are just as intimidating and coercive as religious fanatics.
For both sets of extremists, assimilation and respect for local customs essentially means checking your rights and freedom of conscience at the door. Sadly, the brunt of both secular and religious extremist policies is aimed at controlling women and how they dressed and conducted themselves.
And the woman with the Toronto pool complaint? We wrote to management, which initially stood behind the board president. Upon initiating our formal complaint, their legal counsel directed them to write a letter apologizing to the woman and welcoming her and children back to the pool. They also provided an undertaking to display the Ontario Human Rights Code on the pool wall. I’ve been to the pool and seen the code. That’s how we swim in Canada.
Faisal Kutty is counsel to KSM Law, an associate professor at Valparaiso University Law School in Indiana and an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.