It is a memorable moment in the public discourse of our country. Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau are seeking to find the essence of personal freedom on separate sides of an argument about the black face covering worn by some Muslim women. It’s called the niqab and is quite legal in Canada, unlike France where that cradle of European liberalism banned the garment some years ago. Here it’s just fine to shop, use your credit card or even drive a car, visibility notwithstanding, while wearing the niqab. There are constraints on the niqab however in swearing an oath or testifying in court. The issue became political fodder when a woman insisted on wearing her niqab to take the oath of citizenship. The government said no. Today Mr. Harper said that was offensive. He called the niqab the product of a culture that is “anti-women.” In a speech Monday, Mr. Trudeau said Canadians, presumably including Harper, are free to believe the niqab is “a symbol of oppression.” But using the state’s power to compel Muslim women to give it up indulges “the very same repressive impulse.” And then the critical search for the essence of freedom “It is a cruel joke to claim you are liberating people from oppression by dictating in law what they can and cannot wear.” said the Liberal leader. So, does freedom lie with those who say the niqab a medieval constraint on women or in the embrace of the niqab as any woman’s choice (for herself and her daughter) in any circumstance no matter how formal in Canadian life.
