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“That is not the way we do things,” Mr. Harper said. “This is a society that is transparent, open and where people are equal, and I think we find that offensive. I believe, and I think most Canadians believe that it is — it is offensive that someone would hide their identity at the very moment where they are committing to join the Canadian family.”

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Mr. Harper’s comments and Shawinigan’s decision were applauded by André Drouin, a municipal councillor from Hérouxville, a village of 1,340 near Shawinigan. In 2007, Mr. Drouin drafted a code of conduct that outlawed stoning and bride burning, neither of which had ever been reported in the area.

He said that Mr. Harper and the Shawinigan councillors should act as the people want.

“I applauded Mr. Harper,” he told Le Nouvelliste. “The Canadian population in general is 100 per cent in agreement with him. It’s a bit the same thing in Shawinigan.”

On Feb. 17, in Quebec City, Francois Legault, leader of the nationalist Coalition Avenir Quebec, backed Shawinigan, suggesting that the province should set up some a body to investigate anybody who wants to set up a mosque.

On the same day, federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander sent an email to Conservative supporters saying the government “strongly opposes the wearing of a niqab — or any face covering — that would stand in the way of reciting the Oath of Citizenship and pledging allegiance to Canada and our Queen.”

In the letter, he mixed up the niqab and the hijab, a head scarf, which nobody has proposed banning. Asked about it in the House the following day, he passionately denounced the Taliban.