Muslims Covering Face To Vote? Democrazy Sucks!

SYDNEY, Australia (CP) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Elections Canada is subverting the will of Parliament by permitting Muslim women to wear veils and burkas while voting.

And he's promising Parliament will do something about it if the arm-length elections agency doesn't change course. Harper said he "profoundly disagrees" with Elections Canada's recent ruling, prompted by three byelections in Quebec on Sept. 17.

He noted that all four parties in the House of Commons this past spring voted to bring in a new law requiring visual identification of voters.

"That's the purpose of the law," said Harper, speaking to reporters Sunday following an international summit in Sydney, Australia.

"That was a law adopted virtually unanimously by Parliament. I think this decision goes in an entirely different direction."

Harper has fought a series of battles with Elections Canada going all the way back to his days in private life as president of the National Citizen's Coalition, when he sought to overturn rules prohibiting third-party advertising during election campaigns.

The Conservative party is currently in a legal dispute with Elections Canada over candidate rebates from the 2006 federal campaign.

Harper said the veil decision concerns him deeply "because the role of Elections Canada is not to make its own laws, it's to put into place the laws that Parliament has passed."

Elections Canada has scheduled a news conference Monday morning in Ottawa to address the controversy.

Condemnation of the veil ruling has united politicians on all sides of the political fence, both federally and in Quebec.

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