There was a study widely reported in the Canadian media a few years ago based on interviews conducted with, as I recall, 91 muslim women who wore such coverings. The majority stated that theirs was a matter of choice, often taken despite the objections of their families. Few expressed that it had a religious significance for them. 
If memory serves me, the primary reasons given were two-fold : to discourage the unwanted attention of strange men and to identify themselves with their ethnic origins. In most cases they were willing to remove the coverings when necessary.
The media reports shouldn't be hard to find on Google.
If the study was an accurate reflection of these women's attitudes then bill62 is an overreaction and its detractors' opinions highly exaggerated.