Canada: The province of Québec tells women to remove their face veils or not to vote

Chief Electoral Officer Marcel Blanchet invoked emergency powers to change his mind on one of the controversial minority-rights issues that have roiled the campaign and led to death threats, public outrage and repeated criticism by Parti Québécois Leader André Boisclair.

Mr. Blanchet said his office had been inundated with calls and emails about his decision to allow women to wear the niqab when they voted. His staff was worried and he was assigned two bodyguards. He feared some angry voters would turn out “in the craziest disguises you can imagine” and disrupt Monday's election.

Mr. Blanchet said it was troubling that he had to reverse his position. “Personally, I would have preferred not to do it. But my concern is to ensure everything unfolds normally, and there won't be somebody crazy who will cause trouble on Monday.”

The issue affects a small number of Muslim voters. However, it hit a raw nerve in a province that has been enmeshed for months in acrimonious talks over accommodating religious minorities

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Shama Naz, a 30-year-old Montrealer who wears a niqab, said the issue has been blown out of proportion. She said Muslim women routinely remove their face veils for security matters. She has done so for her Medicare card photo, and each time she crosses the border to visit her father in New York State.

“It's common sense. Muslim women have no problem identifying themselves for security reasons,” she said. “If [elections officials] had spoken to me they would have known I wouldn't mind identifying myself at the ballot box.” While she would prefer to do so to a female elections worker, she would do so for a man as well, said Ms. Naz, an economics graduate. “People are usually scared of what they don't know,” she said of the uproar and yesterday's change in the law. “A lack of information is driving regulations like this.”