Article content continued

If we are landlords, we can be forced to rent premises to niqab-wearers, even though we’d rather shun them. If we own a store or service business, we can be forced to sell goods or services to niqab-wearers even though we’d rather not. And when we write newspaper columns, we have to be careful about what we say lest we be charged under some provinces’ “human rights” laws with a “hate speech” offence.

Niqab-wearers under our current phony “human rights” laws can reject Canadian customs and norms with impunity. They can hold their employers, their landlords, their storekeepers and their garage mechanics in contempt for not sharing their religion, while nevertheless forcing all those people to deal with them and conceal their own antipathy towards face coverings. In fact, the “human rights” laws frequently reward complainants with financial compensation for feeling offended and injured, so why should we be surprised when they claim that they are?

The solution, which I have advocated for many years, since long before the current niqab controversy erupted, is to repeal the phony human rights laws and restore freedom to all Canadians.

If niqab-wearers found that their garb created problems for them in getting jobs, shelter, goods and services, most of them would eventually see the advantages of abandoning the headgear that so annoys and alienates almost everyone around them. If niqab-wearers who hadn’t yet arrived in Canada knew the kind of opposition they’d face, many would decide not to come. The ones who did choose to come would have to arrive prepared to make changes to themselves, not to the society they’d be joining.