Speaking Truth to Power

In the last week, Canadians have seen screaming headlines about Elections Canada allowing Muslim women with niqab/veils or wearing burka’s to vote without showing their face to the returning officer. We have seen politicians from most of the major parties and some columnists castigate Elections Canada and demand that the Marc Maynard, the Chief Electoral Officer appear in front of a parliamentary committee and answer why he would allow this kind of voting. After all the headlines and posturing, one would think that Mr. Maynard, a career civil servant, was acting of his own volition in ruling that Muslim women who wore veils or a burka be allowed to vote without showing their face. But Mr. Maynard was only doing his job as a civil servant – he was speaking truth to power, telling politicians what the law actually said. The Elections Act was amended by Parliament in the spring and those amendments allow for voting without showing one’s face. In fact, the politicians were told that was the case and did not amend the law. As well, for many, many years now, one could vote by mail. Wonder how one shows their face via the postal system?

A number of comments posted by Canadians in some websites are asking why a public servant would disregard the wishes of “his bosses”. Well, the answer is very simple….upholding the law of the land trumps the wishes of the “bosses” every time.