Good points. The niqab and ideas of "modesty" are fundamentally incompatible with Canadian values of gender equality. The niqab is part and parcel of a belief system where women are subjugated and outed homosexuals face the death penalty. I don't get the hypocrisy of western "progressives" to wilfully ignore the depressing realities facing women and LGBT communities in every country in the world where the niqab is common (without exception). It has absolutely nothing to do with religious freedom or cultural relativism, it is simply a function of progress. Canada is an advanced civilized society where women are not shamed under the guise of "modesty". The niqab is part of a fundamentalist culture tied to conservative political Islamism - it has taken one Islamist government in Turkey under 10 years to roll back 90 years of secular progress established by Ataturk. Many European countries are now trying to catch up after strategies to "accommodate" only entrenched the fundamentalists.