National Statement
For immediate release
December 21, 2011

Toronto, ON – The Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) denounces Minister Jason Kenney’s blatantly racist and repressive ban on wearing any type of face covering while taking the oath during the citizenship ceremony, a policy that represents a direct attack of hatred and Islamophobia towards Muslim women who choose to wear the burqa or niqab. This ban against Muslim women represents the latest abuse of power from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, whose recent string of announcements and policy changes have all been directed towards denying the successful settlement and integration of immigrant communities in Canada on all fronts—whether cultural, economic, social and political—while upholding the economy’s continued reliance on racialized and marginalized communities.

While Kenney’s burqa ban is nothing more than a racist denial of an entire people’s cultural practices, he has otherwise justified this ban as a “straightforward” matter of practice, saying that “I have received complaints from members of Parliament, from citizens, from judges of the citizenship court that it is hard to ensure that individuals, whose faces are covered, are actually reciting the oath.” Such top-down and undemocratic directives, based on complaints from within the federal government and citizenship court’s professional elites, are clear indications of the Conservative government’s denial and hostility towards Canada’s racialized populations.

Not only does the ban run against Canada’s basic values of democracy and equality, it is moreover an assertion of power that seeks to determine what practices are correct and incorrect based on assimilationist values. To raise arguments of fear and mistrust, based on the observation that you cannot tell or see if a fellow Canadian is swearing an oath, is insufficient grounds to reject anyone’s citizenship status, especially after they have successfully met all the requirements. Such requirements include: having a basic knowledge of Canada; speaking one of the official languages; and having lived and worked in Canada for three years out of five. Such pretenses of denying citizenship based on mere observation must instead be exposed as a racist act meant to discourage newcomers from acquiring their citizenship rights and to deny their contributions as participants in Canadian society.

With Canada’s Muslim population numbering about 3 percent of the population and with over 150,000 new immigrants being admitted into the country every year, the face of Canada will continue to change. Statistics Canada estimates that by 2031, one in three persons within the labour force will be born in a foreign country. Official policy towards immigrants and racialized peoples, however, continues to prevent their full participation in Canadian society. Amidst heavy-handed and punitive actions such as the burqa ban, we must seriously begin to scrutinize a state multiculturalism that, on the one hand, acknowledges diversity on paper, yet on the other, is used to justify racist and anti-immigrant practices as perpetuated by government policy. In light of recent developments, we must understand the actions taken by the Conservative government as part of a tactic to divide the Canadian working-class, deny citizenship, maintain temporariness and to spark anti-immigrant sentiments while pushing forward austerity measures as part of the neoliberal agenda.

Counter to the principles of “openness and equality,” as Kenney has stated, the ban has instead alienated and stripped Muslim women of their rights and made the Muslim community a target for attack. The flood of racist remarks and comments sparked by Kenney’s action throughout online news outlets reminds us to refuse the threat of inequality and divisiveness that pits our communities against each other while distorting our common interests as members of the working-class. Dictating our manner of dress, the rights we are entitled to and the extent to which we can participate in Canadian society is tantamount to stifling our genuine development and the potential of a truly multicultural and equal society.

As progressive Canadians, we must condemn the recent actions implemented by the Conservative government for they continue to perpetuate violence against fellow working-class Canadians and future citizens of this country. Members of the CPFC will continue to advance the struggle for the just and genuine settlement and integration of all immigrant communities towards our full participation and full entitlement as contributors to Canadian society.

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Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB-Canada (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – National
Sinag Bayan Arts Collective – National
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)

For more information, contact:
Reuben Sarumugam
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
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