Dalton McGuinty, premier of the Canadian provice of Ontario, has ruled against a proposal to allow Moslems to use Shari'a law in family disputes. "There should be one law for all Ontarians," says McGuinty.
Mr McGuinty said he would introduce "as soon as possible" a law banning all religious arbitration in the province.
Ontario has allowed Catholic and Jewish faith-based tribunals to resolve family disputes on a voluntary basis since 1991.
Mr McGuinty, who had been studying Ms Boyd's report since last December, said he was concerned religious family courts could "threaten our common ground".
He told the Canadian Press news agency: "There will be no Sharia law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians."
I have long maintained that, contrary to the proverb, when in Rome, you need not necessarily do as the Romans do; however, you're in a damned poor position to complain about the Romans doing as the Romans do. This is a case where this principle does not apply; while you're not obligated to do as the Romans do when visiting Rome, if you decide to go to Rome to live, you'd damned well better be prepared to comply with their laws, and not expect to be allowed to bring your own with you and declare yourself to be a special case.
No, it's not religious discrimination. It's the opposite of discrimination: it's called fairness. Everyone gets to play by the same set of laws. You don't get to pick and choose which ones you have to comply with based on your own personal religious affiliation. If you want to choose to comply with additional laws imposed by your religion, so long as they don't conflict with the laws of the land, that's your free choice.