Article content continued

Of course, in one sense the issue is deadly serious. It is obviously serious to the women in question, for whom it is a matter of the most profound importance that they keep their face covered in public — an obligation that goes far beyond mere modesty. By contrast, to yield on this point is, for the rest of us, an infinitesimal concession.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

No one else’s life is made the poorer because, somewhere in Canada, a women is swearing allegiance to this country with her face covered. If the federal Conservatives hadn’t made an issue of it, none of those now raising blue hell at this insult to their tender sensibilities would even have been aware of it.

That so many, especially in Quebec, have somehow been persuaded to believe their lives are materially affected by it — worse, that so many politicians have been willing to pander to this sentiment — is also what makes this ridiculous issue terribly serious. They are marking out a small and easily identified minority, already made to feel vulnerable by the presence of a few violent extremists in its midst, for shame and suspicion. They are trafficking in their humiliation.

It should not need restating, but perhaps it does: in a liberal society, it is not sufficient to restrict another’s rights that their behaviour or dress or custom is off-putting to you, or that you find their beliefs abhorrent, or that they and their kind make you feel ill at ease. You are free to think those things, and to say them; but unless they have violated your rights you are not free to limit theirs. Absent some identifiable harm — and the critics have yet to identify any specific harm to themselves or anyone arising from the swearing of an oath under a veil — there is no basis in Canadian law to ban the niqab, at citizenship ceremonies or elsewhere.