In the Interest of Justice: The Coexistence of Religion and Citizenship

Abstract

In recent years, several Western democracies, including France, Austria, and the Netherlands, have enacted bans on Muslim women wearing the niqab in public spaces. These bans are framed as measures to uphold Western democratic values of inclusion, gender equality, and social cohesion within pluralist societies. Amidst increasing migration from conflict-ridden and religiously diverse regions, national calls for similar restrictions have grown, suggesting that diversity requires regulation to sustain a unified national identity.

This thesis focuses on the Canadian government's face-covering ban during the oath of citizenship from 2011 to 2015. The requirement for women to remove face coverings during the citizenship oath was first established in Citizenship and Immigration Canada's (CIC) Operational Bulletin 359, followed by its inclusion in CIC's policy manual. This study critically examines the federal government's attempt to regulate religion and efforts to dictate how religious identity should be visibly embodied as a form of statecraft. The central argument presented here is that the Conservative government's public statements, policies, and legal strategies to deny one woman's right to Canadian citizenship - and her right to embody her religious identity - do not fully account for the complexities of this moment in Canadian history. Exploring the ways in which niqab-wearing women enter, assert, and negotiate their identities in legal cases is essential to understanding this issue. This thesis makes an original contribution to scholarly knowledge by offering a discursive analysis rooted in the concept of deep equality and its intersection with the law in the case of Zunera Ishaq v. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (2015 FC 156), its subsequent appeal Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Ishaq, 2015 FCA 194, and the Motion for Stay (2015 FCA 212) in The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Zunera Ishaq and Attorney General of Ontario. At its most transformative, the law, as a significant institutional site, holds the potential to reimagine national identity in ways that foster a more equitable society, promoting the social, political, and economic well-being of all citizens. This transformative potential is exemplified in the Zunera Ishaq case, where the courts upheld Ms. Ishaq's right to wear her niqab while reciting the oath of citizenship, citing it as a principle 'in the interest of justice'.