I followed the Shari'a issue closely, so I'm going to correct both you and that BBC article :)
Mumtaz Ali was not the "first Muslim to qualify here as a lawyer", but rather the first to swear with his hand on the Qur'an when admitted to the bar.
The proposal was to use shari'a in a limited number of family law cases, and only when both parties agreed.
At no time could a judgment contradict ordinary Canadian law, and the arbitration process has never been "binding"; both parties would have been free to appeal the decision using either religious (eg. shari'a) or ordinary family law.
It wasn't just orthodox Jews using these laws, it was a large number of religious groups, including old-order Mennonites.
The proposal wasn't just defeated -- McGuinty saw the writing on the wall, and scrapped all religious arbitration. B'nai Brith complained (apparently on the grounds that Jewish laws were good and Muslim laws were bad), but everyone else accepted that it was the only fair solution. I don't think this proposal stands any chance at all now of being accepted.
At first I was in favour of this plan, but I became convinced that some young women from Muslim families would be co-erced into "choosing" shari'a, which wouldn't treat them as well as ordinary Canadian law. So I'm glad McGuinty took the only reasonable option, without waiting for a lengthy legal process to force him to do it.
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Shari'a
Date: Wednesday, 26 October 2005 03:58 pm (UTC)- Mumtaz Ali was not the "first Muslim to qualify here as a lawyer", but rather the first to swear with his hand on the Qur'an when admitted to the bar.
- The proposal was to use shari'a in a limited number of family law cases, and only when both parties agreed.
- At no time could a judgment contradict ordinary Canadian law, and the arbitration process has never been "binding"; both parties would have been free to appeal the decision using either religious (eg. shari'a) or ordinary family law.
- It wasn't just orthodox Jews using these laws, it was a large number of religious groups, including old-order Mennonites.
- The proposal wasn't just defeated -- McGuinty saw the writing on the wall, and scrapped all religious arbitration. B'nai Brith complained (apparently on the grounds that Jewish laws were good and Muslim laws were bad), but everyone else accepted that it was the only fair solution. I don't think this proposal stands any chance at all now of being accepted.
At first I was in favour of this plan, but I became convinced that some young women from Muslim families would be co-erced into "choosing" shari'a, which wouldn't treat them as well as ordinary Canadian law. So I'm glad McGuinty took the only reasonable option, without waiting for a lengthy legal process to force him to do it.