Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi has lashed out at the Conservative government for its stance against allowing women to wear a niqab during citizenship ceremonies.
In an interview Wednesday with Evan Solomon on the SiriusXM show Everything is Political, Nenshi — the first Muslim elected mayor of a major city in Canada — called politicizing of the niqab issue “dangerous.”
“This is unbelievably dangerous stuff, it’s not fun anymore,” he said during the interview.
“I spoke with a group of mayors and councillors from all over Alberta last week, and in my speech, with all these people from small town Alberta, I stood up and I said, ‘this is disgusting, and it’s time for us to say stop it, it’s time for us to say this is enough.’
“And I thought people would throw buns at me, and in fact I got wild cheers from these smalltown Alberta folks because there have been two women who have attempted to take the citizenship oath wearing their niqab.
“This is an issue that is relevant to absolutely zero of us.”
But Defence Minister Jason Kenney — who is running in Calgary Midnapore — lashed back on Thursday in reports.
Kenny reportedly said it’s the mayor and people like him politicizing the issue.
To which Nenshi replied on Twitter: “People like me”, eh? Let’s just assume @jkenney means “thoughtful people”, shall we?”
Kenney did not respond to a request for comment to the Sun.
Nenshi also declined to comment.
The federal Conservative government has launched legal challenges against allowing niqabs to be worn during citizenship ceremonies.
A federal Court of Appeal ruling in September struck that down, however.
During the 20-minute SiriusXM interview covering a range of topics, Nenshi also took issue with Stephen Harper’s attacks on Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and the provincial NDP government during the ongoing federal campaign.
“I’m not sure it’s great political strategy to tell people they’re stupid for the government they elected five months ago,” he said.
“The polls are certainly showing that Miss Notley is still the second most popular premier in (Canada) and people did vote for her.
“As a politician I’m not sure I should go to my voters and say ‘oh my gosh, you are so dumb, can you vote for me now?’”
Touching on urban issues, Nenshi said that’s where the federal parties’ focus should be.
“Cities account for 75% of our GDP,” he said.
“If you don’t have a plan for cities, that means you don’t have a plan for the economy.”