Niqab Ban is Hot Button Issue in Canada Election Debate

Prime Minister Stephen Harper sought to win over the key French-Canadian vote in an election debate Thursday with a firm defense of a popular niqab ban that has split his rivals.

With only four weeks left before October 19 legislative elections, a woman's right to wear the veil, which covers all of her face except the eyes, has become a hot-button issue.

A Conservative government policy, introduced in 2011, prohibited wearing such a veil during citizenship ceremonies. But last week, a court struck down the ban.

Harper appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, and said that, if re-elected, his Tories would make it the law.

"When we join the Canadian family we should not hide our identity and that's the reason we believe that new citizens should recite the oath with their face uncovered," he said.

A poll taken in March as debate over the ban reached a fevered pitch showed 82 percent of Canadians supported the ban. In the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, that number climbed to 93 percent.

Thomas Mulcair, leader of the New Democratic Party, which took most of the seats in Quebec in the last ballot in 2011 and held the lead in recent public opinion polls there, has come out in favor of a woman's right to wear whatever she wants.

In the context of a citizenship ceremony, however, he said he would still require a woman to remove her veil to prove her identity.

The Liberals, led by Justin Trudeau, have also pitched the importance of upholding individual rights in Canada's multicultural society.

"If a man can't tell a woman how to dress, we should not have the state telling a woman what she shouldn't wear," Trudeau said.

During the debate, Harper maintained that the niqab is anti-woman.

Turning to Mulcair, he said: "I will never say to my daughter that a woman has to cover her face because she's a woman."

Although less than a few thousand women across Canada wear the veil, the niqab evokes powerful emotions, mixing individual rights, religion, women's issues and culture.

The separatist Bloc Quebecois has said it would go as far as to invoke a rarely-used "notwithstanding clause" to suspend constitutional rights in order to stop any woman from wearing the veil in Canada. 

Its leader Gilles Duceppe said the garment represents the "repression of women."

Both Mulcair and Green Party leader Elizabeth May, however, downplayed the issue, calling it a red herring.

Mulcair accused Harper of "trying to hide his government's economic record behind the niqab."

"What is the impact of the niqab on the economy? What is the impact of the niqab on climate change? What is the impact of the niqab for the unemployed?" added May.

"It's a false debate meant to distract Canadians and avoid debate on real challenges for Canada," she said.