In the 1920s, Canadian women fought for the right to vote; fought to be recognised as a person; fought for equality in the eyes of the law. They won! Are women less than 100 years later prepared to forfeit this equality? I'm sure I can hear resounding, "No's," from across the country. Yet, this is exactly what is happening.

The government of Canada, by not outlawing the burka, is catapulting women in Canada to the pre 1920s, when the women's suffrage movement was fighting the Supreme Court of Canada to be recognized as persons, for their right to equal enfranchisement, and to be heard.

The National Post, June 27, 2009, reported, "The federal government has quietly dropped plans to ban veiled voting in national elections…. Since coming out in favour of such a ban two years ago, all three opposition parties have recanted under pressure from politically correct special interests."

Can this be true? No ban on veiled voting….even though two years ago, they clearly knew it was the right thing to do? This is not only an affront to women, but to liberty, and our stable democracy. CHP Canada calls on the government and parliament to prevent this undermining of Canada's stellar, world-renowned electoral system. The credibility of our elections rests on Canadians' right to know that every registered voter has been clearly identified as the individual presenting themselves at the poll.

And Canadian women have the right to know that the Canadian government supports their liberty. Licia Corbella, of the Calgary Herald, speaking about her December 2003 trip to Afghanistan, said, "I asked all of the many women I met there whether they liked wearing a burka. Not one said yes. In fact, they all said they hated it almost as much as they hated the Taliban." As one Afghani woman said defiantly, "'I will never wear a burka again. They will have to put me in a coffin before I walk around in one again.' That's choice. No sane, free person would ever 'choose' the burka." Period!

But, why should a little thing like a woman's right to choose her clothes get in the way of political parties foraging for a few votes?

Even in Toronto, the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) president, Sohail Raza said, "Islamists arguing for its [the Burka's] continuance in the public sphere have only one objective in mind, which is to exercise control over the lives of women, reducing their chances to make meaningful contributions to society."

Peter Worthington, Sun Media, wrote yesterday, "Women who are conditioned (brainwashed?) into preferring the burka to prevent their faces being seen in public, are not credible arbitrators. Males cannot go to work, or court, or board planes, wearing ski masks. Enlightened women mostly reject the burka, as it symbolizes that they are mere possessions of men."

The CHP would ban the burka from Canada and women who are found wearing such a 'coffin' be given a safe place and protection until such time as the man or men who subjected her to such isolation are apprehended and charged in a court of law. The burka is not mandated in Islam, and it has no place in Canadian society.

The Muslim Canadian Congress doesn't want burkas, Canadian women don't want them, and no real Canadian man would want them. So, why are our parliamentarians abandoning women to a by-gone era of oppression in favour of these un-Canadian special interest groups?

It's time for Canadians to choose CHP Canada as their voice for liberty at the polls.