Two days before Iraqis voted on their constitution on Saturday, the Munk Centre for International Studies hosted a forum to discuss the historic moment.

“For once in Iraqi history…the people get to decide the fate of the country’s future,” said Iraqi ambassador to Canada Howar Ziad.

The panel, entitled “The Making of the Iraqi Constitution,” debated the democratic process that produced the constitution, and the implications that a yes or a no result would have for Iraqis.

The event was moderated by the CBC’s Anna Maria Tremonti and featured a panel headed by ambassador Ziad, former Ontario premier Bob Rae, and U of T professors David Cameron, Amir Hassanpour, and Shahrzad Mojab.

They debated some of the more controversial provisions of the new constitution, including guarantees of the rights of minorities and women, adding Kurdish as an official language alongside Arabic, and the place of Islam in the new Iraq. Even among this primarily academic crowd, the discussion was peppered with disagreement.

“Democratic processes and ideals are spreading in Iraq. We now have 250 privately owned and managed magazines and newspapers, and private radio and television stations, free speech and freedom of the press. Politics is alive and well in Iraq now,” said Ziad, whose optimism was matched by that of Cameron, a political science professor who advised the drafting committee of the Iraqi constitution.

“The headlines might be only about violence and mayhem but on the ground you see a different reality,” he said. “The Sunnis realize that they lost out during the constitutional talks, and now a significant Sunni party is encouraging Sunnis to vote yes. This is a very positive step for Iraqi democracy.”

Cameron likened Canada’s constitutional debates in the early 1980s with those of the current Iraqi debates, though he added, “we didn’t run the risk of being killed for our views like the Iraqis are.”

Not all of the panelists had such an optimistic view of the constitution, for which the vote ballots are currently being counted.

“The constitution should recognize the Kurds’ right to unilateral secession…their right to do so should be acknowledged,” said Hassanpour, associate professor of near and middle eastern civilizations.

Prof. Mojab, director of U of T’s Women and Gender Studies Institute, didn’t buy the constitution’s guarantees that women’s rights will be protected.

“Women are losing out in this constitution. It is a theocracy in disguise…women in the region have reminded me that states in the Middle East are the first entities to violate the constitution they draft.”

“This is an Iraqi constitution and it should include ideas of collective identities within it, and Islam is one of those factors. Sharia will be a source but not the source for legislation,” said Rae, who also served as an advisor to the constitution’s draft committee.

Cameron said that if the constitution passes, then a committee will be set up to discuss amendments which would be put to a second referendum in the spring.

A full tally of votes is not expected until midweek.