Roundup: Resurrecting the “barbaric” issue

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Not content to ratchet up the niqab issue alone, the Conservatives decided yesterday to go full-on culture war, and dredge up their Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices legislation from the previous parliament, and not only tout what it does (almost all of which is duplicative and unnecessarily antagonistic), but they added the promise of setting up a “tip line” for when people suspect these “barbaric cultural practices” like child brides, polygamy or female genital mutilation are taking place. Never mind that there’s already a tip line in place – it’s called 911 – it seems ripe for reporting on neighbours as a general xenophobic policy that ties up police resources that are already stretched thin. While the Twitter lit up with an attempt to turn the #BarbaricCulturalPractices into an exercise in sarcasm, there are more serious issues underlying the Conservatives’ use of the word. Back when the bill was being debated, Senator Mobina Jaffer, herself a Muslim woman and a lawyer, utterly dismantled the bill from its use of the loaded term “barbaric” to its hypocrisy in targeting polygamy by foreigners but not the community of Bountiful in BC, to the way in which it actually denies the protection of those who were forced into marriages, to the way in which the government improperly uses the defence of “provocation” to try and make a point about honour killings. It’s a masterful bit of legislative scrutiny that deserves to be read again in light of what the Conservatives are trotting out for electoral gain, and in order to put the whole issue into proper context. (That it also demonstrates the value of the work that senators can do its an added bonus).

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On the campaign:

  • Chris Alexander and Kellie Leitch promised their “barbaric cultural practices” tip line.
  • The NDP promised a “Voter Protection Act” and also rolled out a Toronto mini-platform.
  • Justin Trudeau was busy with debate prep.

Good reads:

  • The final French debate was mostly going over well-tilled soil with little new to add. Here’s reaction from Michael Den Tandt and Chantal Hébert.
  • Mulcair says that if a TPP deal is reached, a government led by him won’t be bound by it. He also offered Quebec the exclusive right to opt out of federally funded programmes with compensation.
  • While touting the shipbuilding programme (again), Jason Kenney couldn’t commit to how many ships will actually get built.
  • The Harper-less English-language Consortium debate has been quietly cancelled.
  • Mark Kennedy and Kady O’Malley review the last week on the campaign (video).
  • Susan Delacourt calls out the niqab ban as pandering to intolerance.
  • Andrew Coyne notes the NDP pledge to disregard the TPP ends their flirtation with centrist policies.

Odds and ends:

The Senate Ethics Officer’s investigation into Senator Don Meredith has been suspended pending a police investigation.

Shameless self-promotion alert: I was on CPAC’s Vote 2015 call-in show yesterday. Here’s the video.

https://twitter.com/emmmacfarlane/status/650039498399719424

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