OTTAWA - Despite heavy controversy over face coverings at the polls for the last Quebec provincial election, federal election officials say Muslim women will not have to remove their niqabs or burkas to cast their ballots in three federal byelections in Quebec on Sept. 17.
Revised electoral laws received royal assent in June and require that all voters prove their identity and residential address.
However, Elections Canada has introduced rules that allow women to vote without having to show their faces.
Spokesman John Enright said Thursday women wearing niqabs or burkas can bring a piece of identification with a photo and another document proving their identity when they vote. If they don't have the documents, they would have to be vouched for by a qualified voter in the same electoral division.
However, Enright says in cases where women wearing niqabs or burkas don't have any documents or someone to vouch for them, they would have to show their faces to allow their identity to be confirmed.
It's a similar approach adopted by Elections Quebec prior to the provincial election last March. Quebec's chief returning officer Marcel Blanchet was forced to backtrack after receiving threatening phone calls and e-mails as well as pressure from Quebec's three main political parties asking him to reverse the decision.
Since the incident, Blanchet has reflected on the question and may call on the Quebec legislature to modify electoral rules as early as the fall, obliging everyone to show their face when they vote, said spokesman Denis Dion.
Federal election authorities are well aware of the controversy. Spokesman Enright said in an interview with The Canadian Press that the rules are clear and voters in the three ridings had been warned of the changes.
"I have no indication of any reaction, positive or negative. This is the position of Elections Canada and we will hold the line,'' Enright said.
Two of the three byelection ridings in question are in areas where minorities are few in number and the issue is not expected to arise. However, the riding of Outremont might be the exception as it is a diverse multicultural neighbourhood in Montreal.
In Quebec, the debate over "reasonable accommodation'' when dealing with accepting the cultural practices of immigrants has become an increasingly thorny issue. It will be debated at public hearings beginning later this month.
While the federal parties involved in the upcoming byelections seem perplexed but unconcerned, reaction to the Elections Canada plan in Quebec has been more harsh.
The house leader of the opposition Action democratique du Quebec, Sebastien Proulx calls the decision a tremendous error.
"This debate has already taken place in Quebec and we know how quickly it can get out of control. To allow someone to vote with their face covered, if we don't allow it to everyone, we shouldn't allow it for others either,'' Proulx said.
A Parti-Quebecois spokesman said he was surprised to hear of Elections Canada's decision, qualifying the decision made on the provincial level a judicious one.
Michelle Asselin, president of the Federation des femmes du Quebec, says her organization was clear that the rules should be the same for everyone and is calling on Elections Canada to reconsider its decision.
"For us, all citizens, irregardless of religion, must be uncovered,'' Asselin said.
"Certainly, women should go and vote. But they should exercise this right with the same obligation that we have to uncover our face to obtain a driver's licence or a passport.''
The Sept. 17 byelections are in the Montreal riding of Outremont, the rural riding of St-Hyacinthe-Bagot and the Roberval-Lac-St-Jean riding north of Quebec City.
