Senators challenge name, need for Conservatives’ forced marriage bill

Valid questions:

Senators are questioning both the need for and the name of a new Conservative bill aimed at barring polygamous and forced marriages.

Bill S-7, entitled the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, makes amendments to immigration and criminal laws.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander has told a Senate committee studying the bill it is focused on providing added legislative power to stop violence against women.

But Conservative Senator Raynell Andreychuk says if that’s the goal of the bill, perhaps the word violence should have been in the title as too much focus is now on the word barbaric.

Liberal Senator Art Eggleton says that by using barbaric in the title the government is calling cultural communities barbarians, a politically loaded term.But Alexander says it’s the violence against women that is barbaric, not entire communities.

As I noted in an earlier post, a more accurate name would be: Craven Pandering to the Conservative Base and anti-Muslim Sentiment.

Senators challenge name, need for Conservatives’ forced marriage bill | Toronto Star.