For an issue with so little real impact on the outcome of elections in Canada, the question of whether a woman should remove her face veil to vote has generated the most extraordinary controversy.
Before the Quebec election last March, chief returning officer Marcel Blanchet first said the province would allow veiled women to vote, then backtracked after receiving threatening calls and mail, and criticism from all three main parties. Currently, the province has no rules governing the matter of veiled voting.
On the federal level, Elections Canada said last week, in preparation for three Sept. 17 by-elections, all in Quebec, that women wearing niqabs or burkas will be allowed to vote if they provide a piece of identification with a photo, along with another document proving their identity.

In the absence of such documents, a veiled woman can vote if she is vouched for by a qualified voter from the same electoral district.
If a woman cannot meet any of those conditions, she would have to show her face to allow confirmation of identity.
Firestorm! In the bidding war to be appease a Quebec majority amazingly insecure about its identity, even the Conservative federal government has now called for Elections Canada to reverse itself.
This is a lot of fuss over an amazingly slight issue. Muslim groups are not demanding any change, and at least some Muslim spokespersons say there's no real problem with showing one's face long enough for official purposes.
In a democracy there are two key requirements that must be satisfied in any voting exercise: Citizens have the right to vote and everything that can be done to facilitate voting should be done. At the same time, society has the right to be sure that voters are who they say they are. The procedures set out by Elections Canada appear to us to satisfy those requirements.
True, even some officially Muslim countries - Jordan, for one - require women to unveil to vote. The rule was introduced in 1999 in response to voter fraud perpetrated by men dressed up as women.
In much of Europe, Muslim dress has become interwoven with concerns over international terrorism, the oppression of women and national identity.
In Canada, the issue is hardly on the radar in any other province. Much of Quebec is so exercised about the issue, we suspect, not because of any concern over womens' rights but simply because the idea of visible minority communities is still rather new in parts of this province.
Elections Canada should not back down. The new rule, even though few people if any called for it, is just an attempt to be fair and accommodating.