Protestors march against sharia law in Canada
CTV.ca News Staff
Demonstrations are planned across Canada and Europe today to protest against allowing Islamic sharia law in Ontario.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said his Liberal government will decide “shortly” on whether to permit Islamic law to be used in Ontario family arbitration cases.
He insists the rights of women will not be compromised if sharia tribunals get the go-ahead to settle marital disputes for Muslims in the province.
“Whatever we do, it will be in keeping with the values of Canadians and Ontarians,” he told reporters Wednesday.
The Ontario government is still reviewing a report submitted nine months ago by former provincial Attorney-General Marion Boyd.
Boyd recommends that Muslims in Ontario should have the same rights as other religious groups such as Christians and Jews which have used faith-based arbitration to settle family disputes since 1991.
If Ontario rejects sharia, then it faces the spectre of ending all religious arbitration, Boyd said.
Boyd claims there is no evidence women were being discriminated against in faith-based arbitration and recommends that Ontario’s existing arbitration system be strengthened.
“The recommendations that I’ve made put a lot of safeguards in place,” Boyd told CTV’s Canada AM.
“I think they have to have the political courage to recognize they’re not going to satisfy everybody.”
However the prospect of sharia-based tribunals in Ontario has raised alarm bells among women’s groups across Canada and Europe, as well as human-rights activists and dissidents from Islamic states such as Iran.
They argue that sharia, even limited to family arbitration, would create a precedent for religious fundamentalists working to suppress women’s rights. They say it could discriminate against Muslim women who might be pressured into it against their will.
“They are helping the Islamic groups to legalize violence against women,” campaigner Shiva Mahbobi told CTV’s Canada AM.
“It’s racism to put people in different categories and define their rights based on where they come from.”
“Under shariah law if a woman has a relationship outside marriage she can be stoned to death and girls as young as nine can be made to marry,” Mahbobi added.
“I am asking the government to give a choice to these women.”
New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos accused the McGuinty government of burying its head in the sand. “It’s regrettable that the government has simply failed to act in the matter and failed to address concerns that are raised,” he told The Globe and Mail.
Even McGuinty’s opponent, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory acknowledged the government is grappling with a difficult issue, one that is “hugely emotional” for both sides, Boyd’s report said.
Protesters are planning to convene at Queen’s Park in Toronto at noon Thursday.
The protest will coincide with marches in 11 other cities in Canada and Europe, including Victoria, Ottawa, Montreal, London, Paris and Stockholm.
i dont get it, why wud anyone want to have an affair outside marriage in the first place? thats their defending argument?. n no one is forcing them to follow shariyah. u can follow it if u want to. i dont see anything wrong with it. as long as i doesn conflict with charter of rights, it shouldnt be a problem for anyone.
, so that it too can be a part of the curriculum.