Reasonable Doubts

Accommodation has such a cosy sound. Even when it is applied to government policies, it carries a hint of rest after a tiring journey. But there is nothing cosy or comforting about the accommodation issues that Canadians face today.

Take the issue of the burqa, the all-concealing garment that has become the focus of frighteningly intense emotion in the West. In France this summer, a Mediterranean resort sought to ban the so-called burkini, an outfit that covers only marginally more than a standard female Victorian bathing costume. The country’s Council of State overturned the proposed ban, but not before social media hummed with photographs of gendarmes forcing women in Muslim dress to leave, pay fines or even partially disrobe on the beaches. Not to mention a popular Facebook posting by the imam of Florence, showing—without comment—fully clad nuns cavorting in the water.