The election rhetoric based on fear-mongering against women who wear niqab only has traction if we all collude with its false conclusions.

It turns women’s safety and rights into a political game that distracts from the realities. More lastingly, it has stigmatized a specific population of Canadians.

Far from advancing equality and stopping violence against women, it appears to have unleashed hate. The women attacked since the government’s “Barbaric Cultures tip line” was introduced know this only too well.

The sad truth is that globally, violence against women meets the United Nations definition of a Global Pandemic. Canada is no innocent in this. It is a legacy of Canada’s colonial past that there are more than 1,200 missing and murdered Indigenous women. It is Canada where every six days a woman is killed by an intimate. It is in Canada that 460,000 women are sexually assaulted each year.

If there is any one culture to be blamed here, it is the culture of patriarchy. We all live in it. If you want to report on it, we already have tip lines: they are called rape crisis centres, legal clinics, sexual assault centers, and shelters. Separating out certain forms of violence against women as “barbaric” fails to acknowledge that all violence against all women is “barbaric.”

Two weeks ago, the preventable homicides of Anastasia Kuzyk, Nathalie Warmerdam and Carol Culleton by a man known to them, occurred in small town Ontario. It was an urgent reminder of the need to address systemic failures in realizing women’s rights to live free from violence in Canada. Instead, the focus has centered on what women should or should not wear and who has the privilege to be called Canadian.

We challenge our political leaders to confront the very real and practical barriers that allow inequality and violence against women to persist, right here at home.

When we talk about the country we want, we must talk about values that respect, protect and guarantee women’s rights. These values create environments that are safe for women. These values empower women to make autonomous decisions regarding their bodies and their self-expression, and yes, their personally held religious beliefs.

Twisting “feminism” to win an election based on racist hate will hardly work on us.

As women leaders with decades of experience, we believe that Canada can and must do better than this.

Signed by:

1.Sally Armstrong, C.M.

2.Akua Benjamin

3.Christa Big Canoe

4.Pamela Cross

5.Amanda Dale

6.Jane Doe

7.Debbie Douglas

8.Margot Franssen, O.C.

9.Avvy Go, O.Ont.

10.Barbara Hall

11.Alia Hogben, O.C.

12.Valerie Hussey, C.M.

13.The Hon. Mobina Jaffer, Q.C.

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14.Farrah Khan

15.Julie Lalonde

16.Michele Landsberg, O.C.

17.The Hon. Frances Lankin C.M.

18.Deepa Mattoo

19.Heather McGregor

20.Winnie Ng

21.Hon. Margaret Norrie McCain C.C., O.N.B.

22.Ratna Omidvar, C.M., O. Ont.

23.Dr. Pamela D. Palmater

24.Arlene Perly Rae

25.Judy Rebick

26.Angela Robertson

27.Paulette Senior

28.Beverley Wybrow, C.M