Culturally and legally, under most interpretations of sharia, men have far more rights than women when it comes to inheritance, divorce, child-support payments and child-custody issues.
Canadian legal safeguards and training for imams cannot change this, she says, pointing out that her imam doesn't speak fluent English and has little knowledge of Canadian Charter rights.
For me the issue is simple. The very essence of Canada, of being recognized as a Canadian whatever you look like and whatever your faith is that we share a core common culture. That is all we have. We are not an ethnic tribe. We are all minorities - even WASPs like me.
So what does share a common culture mean? It means to share the Canadian values of tolerance, that might suggest that we accept Sharia, but that we also share the foundation of our values - a legal system that has been developed in response to these values.
This makes it clear for me - our legal system trumps all others. There cannot be any separate system. In particular there cannot be one that essentially violates the values of the Canadian system. Sharia does that.
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