The Tories have introduced a bill that would require all voters, including veiled Muslim women, to show their faces before they vote in federal elections.
According to Government House Leader Peter Van Loan, the bill would provide Elections Canada the ability to allow Muslim women to uncover their faces in front of a female elections official behind a screen. It would also make exceptions for people who have bandages on their faces for medical reasons.
The bill follows last month's verbal volleying between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Elections Canada chief Marc Mayrand. In September, Mayrand held a press conference to let the government and Canadians know that current legislation provides options for voters to cast ballots without providing photo identification or showing their face.
Mayrand also pointed out that under the current mail-in method of voting, used by 80,000 voters in the last federal election, no visual contact at all occurs between the voter and Elections Canada staff.
It's not clear whether the bill introduced on Friday will have an impact on mail-in ballots.
Mayrand's comments last month came after Harper had blasted Elections Canada for defying Bill C-31 -- which was passed by Parliament in June -- by allowing Muslim women to wear veils and burkas while voting.
Lawrence Cannon, the prime minister's chief lieutenant in Quebec, said the changes were necessary because of problems that arose in federal byelections last month. He reportedly said some people showed up during the election wearing masks, while others wore veils.
For much of the past year, Quebec has been mired in controversy regarding the concept of reasonable accommodation of religious minorities and ethnic groups.
City officials in Herouxville gained international notoriety by introducing a "Code of Life" -- telling new residents that they needed to abide by certain rules, including not displaying the veil in public life. On Thursday, one of the town's councillors told a provincial commission looking into the matter, that Canada's Charter of Rights was destroying the country by giving too much religious freedom and that Quebec may need separate in order to protect its culture.
Earlier this week, Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois said she wanted to introduce a bill that would require anyone running for public office in the province (including in school board elections) to be proficient in French.
Opposition parties and Muslim groups fear that Quebec's controversies will now be given a national stage.
"I do not want this debate imported into the House of Commons,'' said Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff, according to the Canadian Press.
Ignatieff said he supports the concept of having voters identify themselves, but he fears the bill may create other unwanted repercussions.
"What I don't like about this whole project is the idea that we take a bunch of women wearing veils and we make a whole big deal about this . . . Let's not have politicians fishing around and creating divisions between Canadians about this.''
Muslim-Canadian groups in the past have said the controversy surrounding veiled women and voting was overblown and unnecessary.
Sarah Elgazzar of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations told CTV Montreal last month that people who wear the face coverings generally don't object to identifying themselves.
