Belgium takes a commonsense step and wins admiration from the world at large

When will Canada follow ? It takes guts to implement this law as it kicks those afflicted with the deadly disease of political correctness in the butt. I think our Conservative govt is full of pussies and will never have the gonads to do what France and Belgium has done. Sad !!!!

Opponents of the burqa and niqab had reason to celebrate on July 23 as Belgium became the second Western country to enforce a nationwide prohibition on face-covering attire in public. The Chamber of Deputies, Belgium's lower house, overwhelmingly backed the legislation on April 28, with the Senate offering no objections during its subsequent review period. The penal code spells out the parameters (translated by Google, with some manual cleaning):

Shall be punished by a fine of €15 to €25 and imprisonment for one to seven days, or one of these penalties, those who, except for contrary legal provisions, appear in places accessible to the public with their faces masked or concealed in whole or in part, such as not to be recognizable.

Exceptions can be made for certain types of work and festivals. Fines are automatically multiplied by a factor of 5.5, bringing the maximum assessment to €137.50 (around $200).

Belgium follows France, the first Western nation to banish face coverings from its streets. Like the French law that took effect on April 11, Belgium's is broad in nature, applying to virtually all public spaces and making no specific mention of burqas or niqabs, despite having been inspired by their proliferation. Unlike the French law, Belgium's includes jail time among the penalties for wearers and introduces no new punishments for strong-arming others to conceal themselves. .......