The global lessons on xenophobic language and symbols from the 42nd federal elections in Canada

The actions of the main political players in Canada’s 42nd elections provides lessons that can instill both hope and fear for many parts of the world. The most important of the lessons stems from the appalling attempt by the former governing Conservative Part led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cabinet to engage in xenophobic language and actions to drive voters away from the opposition parties. The focus of these politicians seemed to literally politically hunt one solitary woman who wanted to wear her niqab at the citizenship swearing ceremony after she had dutifully taken it off to identify herself in private. Only one other woman had sought the same desire. This was followed up with some of the most senior Cabinet ministers announcing a snitch line for Canadians to inform on “barbaric cultural practices”. These same actors promoted the fact that a poll commissioned by Harper’s own Privy Council indicated that the majority of Canadians may have supported the government on the niqab issue. It was never clear whether those polled were aware that had taken off the face covering prior to the ceremony to be properly identified.

VEILED PREJUDICES: MUSLIM-CANADIAN WOMEN SPEAK OUT ON NIQAB DEBATE

While other party leaders accuse the Conservatives of dividing Canadians over a minor issue, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is adamant to unveil the truth beyond the niqab and set things straight. He has promised to “look at” extending Quebec’s Bill 62 across the federal bureaucracy – supposedly in the name of fostering neutrality – and forbid civil servants and those accessing government services from wearing face-covering veils.

Is Harper trying to scare new Canadians into not voting by publicly attacking minority faiths and traditions? If you’re worried about how you look or how you dress, will the desire to mark your 'x' on the ballot be stronger? Is Harper's reference to new/old stock Canadians only one more Conservative strategy to split voters?

Quebec Women Who Wear The Niqab Cannot 'Go Home To Their Country,' Consider Themselves 'Old Stock Canadians'

They eat halal shepherd's pie, are fond of maple syrup and believe Quebec should become an independent country — or did, at least until recently.

HuffPost Quebec sat down with three Quebec women who converted and decided to wear the veil at the risk of upsetting the people of "their country."

One would be tempted to think that Warda Naili, 31, Carina Demonceaux, 24, and Julie* (not her real name), 18, had converted to Islam after falling in love with a Muslim man and then been forced to start wearing the niqab. However, two of them are adamant that they chose to cover their faces to their husbands' great dismay.

Ministers had no objection to niqabs in public service last March

After Zunera Ishaq won a Federal Court challenge of a 2011 government change to citizenship judicial rules requiring the judges to refuse citizenship for Muslim women who refused to take off face-covering niqabs while swearing oaths in public ceremonies, Treasury Board President Tony Clement, saying he had no objections to niqabs in the public service, told reporters hijabs and niqabs were “frequently worn” in the ranks of government.

Harper on the niqab much more than mere distraction

If Stephen Harper was just using the niqab as a political distraction in the dwindling days of this long campaign, that would be the most charitable description of this gambit that could possibly be found.

If it was just a cynical ploy to avoid late-campaign scrutiny of his economic record, many of us would shake our heads, but others would grudgingly nod to the shrewd political tacticians on the Conservative side.

The niqab issue is about to blow up in Stephen Harper’s face

Pollsters in Canada like to say their trade is a science. These days it looks more like science fiction. Or maybe voodoo.

What’s supposed to be a beacon of light in a cluttered campaign has turned into a Tower of Babble. Pollsters and the media agencies that feed off them are sowing confusion, not the clarity that comes from a thorough, searching and substantive debate.

Pritam Singh Jauhal, Second World War Vet Who Fought For Sikh Rights, Decries Niqab Ban

OTTAWA — A 95-year-old Second World War veteran who famously championed the rights of turban-wearing Canadian Sikhs says he disagrees with limiting the freedoms of Muslims who wear religious face coverings.

Retired lieutenant-colonel Pritam Singh Jauhal and four friends were barred from a 1993 Remembrance Day ceremony at the Royal Canadian Legion Newton branch in Surrey, B.C. because of a rule that banned head coverings.

Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour Talks Niqabs

One of Canada's most esteemed jurists, Louise Arbour, has had enough with what she calls the "unhealthy debate" over the niqab face-covering looming large in the federal election campaign.

Arbour — a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, one-time UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda — wrote in an open letter published Thursday in the French-language daily La Presse that constitutional rights guaranteed in law are being threatened in the niqab debate.

Harper Is Throwing a 'Veil' Over the Women's Issues That Matter

It's the last two weeks before we go to the polls for the federal election, and we're heading into the home stretch.

I love following politics, but this election has been wearying. With the longest campaign in history, I'm not surprised the voters are tired.

Harper pitting country against Muslims, some Niqab wearers say

As Stephen Harper hardens his anti-niqab position on the campaign trail, three Canadian women who wear the face veil say the Conservative leader’s rhetoric risks pitting the country against its Muslim citizens.

The Conservatives have long opposed women wearing the face covering at Canadian citizenship ceremonies, but with the federal election less than two weeks away, Harper doubled down this week by suggesting that if re-elected, he would consider passing a law banning the veil from the federal public service.

Years Ago, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper Launched His Political Career By Trying To Ban The Sikh Turban. He Lost

The rhetoric over the niqab in the federal election campaign is proving reminiscent of another furor, more than 20 years ago, around the Sikh turban and its compatibility with Canadian values and the country's dearest institutions.

What was allegedly at stake in that debate in the 1990s was the very fabric of the nation, and the sanctity and perhaps survival of an important historic symbol of the country -- the Stetson of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Baltej Singh Dhillon, a young Sikh-Canadian, wanted to become a Mountie. But his application to the force led to a kind of turban turmoil and an eventual intervention in Parliament by the Progressive Conservative government of the day. [The ‘Progressive Conservatives’ were a completely different party from today’s ’Conservatives/Tories’; the latter, now led by Stephen Harper, is merely the reincarnation of the racist Reform Party which then led the fight to ban the turban.]

Fahmy says he rebuffed invitation to Tory rally; questions niqab debate

An exhausted but “ecstatic” Mohamed Fahmy woke up Wednesday outside of Egypt for the first time in two years and began something of a victory tour in the United Kingdom, a celebratory pit stop on his way home to Canada. “I’m ecstatic, I finally feel that I’m free. It has just kicked in, to be honest,” he said by telephone between a visit to Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a visit to Amnesty International, to thank the organization for its support during his 21-month ordeal, which included more than 400 days in prison.

Bureaucracy baffled by Harper's niqab stance

Stephen Harper’s startling statements that he will consider banning the niqab in the federal public service drew fire from his foes but appeared to mostly baffle bureaucratic insiders.

Unions and other political party leaders were quick to condemn the Conservative leader’s remarks. However, it wasn’t clear if there were more than a few, if any, women who wear the niqab – a veil that conceals the face except for the eyes – in the federal public service.

Elections Canada Policy Allows Women To Wear Niqabs While Voting

A woman's right to wear a niqab has been a hot topic on the hustings, but when it comes to actually casting a ballot, it hasn't been an issue for Elections Canada in eight years.

Women who show up to vote on Oct. 19 wearing a face covering won't be forced to remove it to verify their identity. They will be asked to sign an oath attesting to their eligibility and to present two pieces of identification — at least one having a current address.

Harper: Niqab Ban For Public Servants Would Be Considered

OTTAWA — A Conservative government would look at banning public servants from wearing the niqab, Stephen Harper told the CBC on Tuesday.

"That's a matter we are going to examine," Harper said in an interview with Power and Politics host Rosemary Barton.

"Quebec, as you know, has legislation on this and we are looking at that legislation."

Islamophobia, the niqab and dog-whistle racism in the Canadian election

The danger with dog-whistle politics is the very real, very violent anger and emotions it unleashes.

We are seeing this in the ugly and racist campaign the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois are disgracefully waging against the very small number of women of the Islamic faith who chose to wear the niqab face veil.

For many months now the Conservatives have been seeking to shift the focus from real issues -- like the economy, the environment, senate scandals, etc. -- to this total non-issue. They appear to be succeeding.

Danny Williams says Stephen Harper's tactics are borderline racist

Former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams says some of the tactics of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper are borderline racist.

Williams, who led a Progressive Conservative government in Canada's most easterly province from 2003 to 2010, launched his latest scathing attack against Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada on Sunday during an interview with CBC News.

Zunera Ishaq cleared by court to take citizenship oath wearing niqab

The Federal Court of Appeal has denied the application for a stay of the Federal Court ruling in favour of Zunera Ishaq, clearing the way for her to wear a niqab during a citizenship ceremony.

Regulations have banned wearing of face veils at citizenship ceremonies, but Ishaq challenged the rule and won in Federal Court. On Sept. 18, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld that decision in a quick ruling from the bench. The federal government had sought a stay of the ruling and said it intended to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Muslim convert attacked while wearing niqab in Toronto

Her roots in Canada stretch back through her francophone mother to the 1600s. Last week, wearing her Islamic face veil – the niqab, which has become a central issue in the federal election – she says she was trying to enter Shoppers Drug Mart at Toronto’s Fairview Mall when a man carrying a liquor-store bag blocked her path and then drove his elbow hard into her shoulder, in front of her two daughters, ages nine and four.

“It hurt, yo,” Safira Merriman, 30, said in a Facebook post describing the incident.

‘This is disgusting and it is time for us to say stop it’: Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi blasts Tories’ niqab ban

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi lambasted the Conservative government for taking issue with women wearing the niqab during citizenship ceremonies, arguing it’s “playing with fire” and wasting taxpayers’ money.

Speaking to Evan Solomon in an interview on SiriusXM’s “Everything is Political,” Nenshi aired his frustrations over the ongoing court battle, launched by Stephen Harper’s government to prevent women from wearing face coverings, such as the niqab, during citizenship ceremonies.