re. McGuinty wrong to ban sharia law

I would like to draw your attention to some basic points of fact that Dr. Elmasry gets strikingly wrong! I'm not going to waste our time rebutting the entire thing.

In the second paragraph, he states "Catholics, Jews, Mennonites and yes, even Ismaili Muslims who use one form of sharia" are using the Arbitration Act. In fact, as Richard Brennan reported in an article in the Toronto Star on Sunday, Catholics and Mennonites do not use the Arbitration Act. And an article in the Globe & Mail today reported that the Jewish Rabbinical courts only heard two cases involving family law last year. The Jewish protest is over principle, not practical application.

As for the Ismaili Muslims, they use the Arbitration Act only for business disputes and not for family law.

In short, despite all the sound and fury, removing family law from the arbitration act will have no impact on religious communities.

The Islamic Institute of Justice would have introduced something new into Ontario's Family Law system. As such it is entirely reasonable that the issue should provoke widespread debate and even amendments to legislation.

Dr. Elmasry also makes a incredible error in logic in his closing remarks. Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and our Human Rights Code both specify non-discrimination because of gender. However every version of Sharia distinguishes between how men and women are to be treated. As such it is fundamentally incompatible with both the Charter and the Code. It takes a breathtaking twist of logic, or a lot of chutzpah, for him to appeal to the Charter in order to violate it!

Gary Dale