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The PCO poll was conducted by Leger between March 12 and 25. The calls to 3,000 Canadians were made the week after the Conservatives filed their appeal of the Federal Court decision.

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Right before the survey began, Harper had called the niqab a product of a culture that is anti-woman, while Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau had given a major speech on liberty in politics.

Participants in the survey were asked, “Do you support or oppose a requirement that people show their face during Canadian citizenship ceremonies?”

Eighty-two per cent of those surveyed supported the requirement, 15 per cent opposed and four per cent didn’t know or refused to answer.

Support was highest in Quebec at 93 per cent and lowest in British Columbia at 72 per cent. Reasons for support were varied, with the most common answer in the poll being the need for identification.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

In 12 focus groups conducted at the same time, participants gave more context to why they supported the ban.

“Participants felt that those who attended such ceremonies needed to be clearly identifiable and did not think it made sense that someone should be able to hide their face,” said Leger’s report.

“Other participants felt that this was first and foremost a value-based issue. To them, this was about new immigrants embracing Canadian values when being welcomed as new citizens. Removing their niqab or burka was the normal thing to do in Canada and therefore, the Canadian government was right in issuing this direction about showing their faces.”