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If you don’t have the law, you argue the facts; if you don’t have the facts, you argue the law.  Having neither in the niqab debate, the Conservatives have resorted to popular opinion — which is a poor substitute for principle. 

This is the box the Conservatives find themselves in on the niqab debate that has consumed so much political oxygen of late. 

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[np_storybar title=”Richard Moon: The government is sure to lose its appeal in the citizenship oath-niqab case.  Maybe that’s the point” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/17/richard-moon-the-government-is-sure-to-lose-its-appeal-in-the-citizenship-oath-niqab-case-maybe-thats-the-point/”]The federal government will lose its appeal in the case of Ishaq v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration — the citizenship oath-niqab case. 

Evidence submitted to the court in the original hearing showed that the government was told by its legal advisers that the no-niqab rule was legally defective.  No doubt, its legal advisers have now also advised the government that the appeal is unwinnable — although they may have hedged this a little since lawyers are seldom willing to predict the outcome of a case with complete certainty.