Canadian Law, Eh
For the last federal election I attended an all candidates meeting where the audience was allowed to ask questions. One very good question arose - how they view the Ontario Arbitration Act 1991 allowing the use of Islamic sharia law to decide some civil cases, in particular marraige.
I was appalled at the response from Joe Comartin. Not only did he dismiss the concerns of Muslim women, he also blamed the "over-reaction" on "women's groups". What what worse was his 'apparent' knowledge of Islamic law, which was obviously fed to him by the male members of the Islamic community in Windsor.
I learned from Mr. Comartin's former campaign manager that Mr. Comartin had scheduled political meetings at a mosque on Wyandotte Street where only the male members of the community were represented. No women were in attendance. I also learned that he received donations from the mosque.
I don't believe there is anything particularly wrong with religious organizations donating to a particular party member's campaign. But when that Member of Parliament foregoes his public responsibilities to be inclusive of all members of our society and is expected to uphold basic human rights legislation by blaming the "over-reaction" on women, he is being bought for his support to further particular philosophies that is not consistent with Canadian values.
Mr. Comartin assumed that only women were concerned about the implementation of an Islamic Sharia arbitration court in Ontario. Many Muslim men are against it as well because they know that the different interpretations of Islamic law does not comply with s. 28 of the Charter. Perhaps Mr. Comartin thought it was politically expedient to shrug off the rights of women that are guaranteed equally.
After Mr. Comartin attempted to dismiss the concerns, he seemed to have an effect on the audience. One of the men piped up questioning why it mattered anyway? I couldn't contain myself, I had to retort back by saying it was a human right issue. Even though there was a CBC Radio reporter in front of me, this did not make the news and I was not interviewed to discuss my views.
The reason I am concerned about a Sharia court is because I have intimate knowledge of Ontario's Muslim community for the last ten years. Islamic law does not guarantee the rights to Muslim women that our Charter already guarantees. Within those ten years, I studied Islamic law for two years as a Salafist Muslim. There are different interpretations of Islamic thought from various schools of thought called methabs. Those are further broken down into other interpretations such as Wahabism and Salafism, the former supported by members of Al Qaeda and supportive groups.
I have first hand experience how many women have been marginalized within the community, having their rights insidiously denied by the men that attend such meetings that support MP's like Mr. Comartin, who just parrot propaganda to the electorate for the sake of votes.
As I have pointed out in this post, Muslim women will not be guaranteed their rights when legal aid systematically discriminates against women as it stands in Ontario.
Marian Boyd, a member of the New Democratic Party was asked to evaluate the use of sharia law in civil arbitration. While she argues that this a private issue, the Ontario Arbitration Act, 1991 is legislation and an act of government that needs to comply with s. 32 of the Charter. Nothing was mentioned regarding s. 28.
The Ontario Women's Justice Network makes a good point, that Ms. Boyd has assumed there was equality for women in Ontario.
posted by HR at 5/13/2005 06:13:00 p.m.
3 Comments:
This issue is new to me, so forgive me for asking what may be rather dumb questions.
(1) What was the original intent in providing for the creation/support of a Sharia court? Are provisions made for other religious 'courts', eg one based on Talmudic law?
(2) What is the authority granted this Sharia court? What sort of penalties are "ok"?
(3) Would the Charter not override any decisions by said court if a woman's rights were being affected? (Or is that where your concern re: legal aid comes in?)
They are good questions. I also want to point out there is a reason I am anonymous. This is for safety reasons.
Also, what concerns us in Ontario, isn't always the case in Alberta, for example, since the Muslim population isn't as great.
So let me answer #3 first:
When legislation is created either in federal parliament or provincial parliament, it has to comply with the Charter. If that legislation doesn't, then the woman, for example, has to apply to a court of competant jurisdiction.
A Charter challenge is very difficult to achieve not only in Ontario but in most of Canada. For one thing, the woman has to have a lawyer to make the challenge. Legal Aid covers nothing of the sort. She also has to know that her Charter rights have been violated, but that is the government of Ontario's responsibility to see to it that legislation is written to protect those rights.
Even if legislation is written, it doesn't mean that it will be complied with. Alot of legislation is written in Ontario that does not comply with the Charter, I have given a few examples already in some of my posts.
I'll elaborate on this in later posts by adding some of the hadith (sayings of the prophet) which is part of the sharia. These sayings are law. There are about 27 books, I have one digested version!
#2 The original intent was to accommodate religious beliefs. Islamic law IS the religion and the Islamic religion is the law. There is NO separation. The point is to have a separation of state and religion for all relgious doctrine that violates the Charter.
The Divorce Act accommodates Jewish religious ceremonies. That contract is called a 'ghet'. Islam has a contract as well, but mostly it is recognizing that individuals were married in a particular religious manner, just like a marraige in a christian church.
Islamic law has much more breadth.
#2 is more difficult to answer because we don't know the abuses that will take place in advance, although we can speculate.
Already some mosques are engaged in polygamus ceremonies. I know of one in London Ontario in particular since I was shown the polygamous contracts.
This is in violation of the Criminal Code, but it happens anyway. Will the Sharia court deal with those openly or will they continue to be dealt with 'underground' within the mosque's 'jurisdiction'? What about divorce in these cases?
There is also the issue of child custody. In Islamic law, the boy at the age of 7 goes automatically to the father.
The main concern is the knowledge of rights of women within the communities themselves. I have experienced offensive behaviour by men within the community deliberately hindering women from achieving services within the community. They have also knowingly denied women the right to know about these services.
Since the community is so male dominated, the concerns are such that the dominant ones will hinder the knowledge of guaranteed rights.
I don't count on this government in Ontario to ensure these rights are protected at all because they are doing a very poor job as it is.
See the other posts which contain the concerns and recommendations of the CEDAW Committees review on Canada for discrimination against women. It mentions legal aid for one, which was added in part to my research that I have posted on this blog.
If you'd like a little more information this site might be useful: http://www.nosharia.com/
I meant to say in answering #3 that even if legislation is written, those bodies who are responsible for seeing to it that they are complied with, don't.
This is a HUGE problem in Ontario. Many rights are denied, abused and basically are impotent because of the administrative law system we have set up in Ontario.
IMO, the Ontario government and bureaucracy is more corrupt than the federal government. Can you imagine?
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