Supreme Court of Canada Upholds Right of Sikhs to Keep Kirpan on at School

March 3rd, 2006 by admin

School ban on Sikh daggers not justified, says Supreme Court

Jim Brown
Canadian Press

Thursday, March 02, 2006

OTTAWA — A Montreal school board went too far in imposing a blanket ban on the wearing of Sikh ceremonial daggers by students, says the Supreme Court of Canada.

In an 8-0 judgment Thursday, the court overturned a decision that barred teenager Gurbaj Singh Multani from wearing the dagger, known as a kirpan, to class.

The court said a total ban can’t pass muster under the Charter of Rights, because the policy infringes the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.

But the court left room for some restrictions to be imposed on the carrying of kirpans in the name of public safety.

A number of schools in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario have long permitted the wearing of kirpans subject to certain conditions.

The rules often include a size limit on the dagger, or a requirement to keep it sheathed and to wear it under clothing and out of sight.

Those conditions are acceptable to the vast majority of orthodox Sikhs, said Palbinder Shergill, counsel for the Canadian branch of the World Sikh Organization.

”I certainly hope this decision will put that matter to rest once and for all,” she told reporters.

Gurbaj Singh, now 17 and in his last year of high school - a private school that allows him to wear his kirpan - acknowledged that the five years it took for the case to wend its way through the courts were a bit stressful.

”I was a little scared but the community supported me a lot, they stood by me shoulder by shoulder,” he said. ”I’m thankful to them.”

The ruling will ease the way for younger students still in public schools in Quebec, he said.

”I feel very good that we won our rights. Everybody should stand for their rights.”

Orthodox Sikhs, who make up about 10 per cent of the estimated 250,000 Sikhs in Canada, are required by their religion to wear the kirpan at all times.

The Montreal dispute arose in 2001 when Gurbaj Singh, then aged 12, first wore his kirpan to school.

Officials tried at first to work out a compromise that would allow him to continue wearing the religious emblem, but with some conditions for the sake of safety.

The governing council of the Margueriite-Bourgeoys school board overruled that approach and imposed a total ban.

During a Supreme Court hearing last April, Julius Grey, the lawyer for the Multani family, noted there has never been a school assault committed with a kirpan anywhere in Canada.

That amounts to ”overwhelming empirical evidence that the kirpan is not a dangerous weapon,” said Grey.

Francois Aquin, the lawyer for the Montreal board, retorted that there have never been any school assaults with kitchen knives either.

”That doesn’t mean we will allow students to carry kitchen knives in school.”

The case made its way to the high court after conflicting decisions at the provincial level.

A Quebec Superior Court judge ruled in Gurbaj Singh’s favour in 2002, saying he could carry the kirpan under certain conditions - for example, if he kept it sewn into a cloth envelope to be worn beneath his clothing.

Quebec Court of Appeal reversed that decision in 2004, ruling that the school board had the power to impose a total ban.

Other precedents in other provinces have produced a patchwork of policies - not only in schools but in other public institutions.

For example, Sikh MPs can wear kirpans in the House of Commons and visitors can wear them in the public galleries.

It’s all right to wear kirpans in the Supreme Court of Canada, but trial judges in some provinces have banned them from their courtrooms.

Most airlines once allowed passengers to wear kirpans with blades no longer than 10 centimetres. In the security crackdown that followed the 9-11 terrorist attacks, however, Transport Canada decreed a country-wide ban.

The Supreme Court judgment is confined to school situations and does not apply to other areas, which the judges noted may be subject to different policy considerations.

They permit kirpans but impose various restrictions - most often a limit on their size or a requirement that they be worn out of sight.

The different precedents have produced a patchwork of policies across the country - something that’s true not only in schools but in other public institutions.

It’s all right, for example, for Sikh MPs to wear kirpans in the House of Commons and for visitors to wear them in the public galleries.

It’s also all right to wear kirpans in the Supreme Court of Canada. But trial judges in some provinces have banned them from their courtrooms.

Most airlines once routinely allowed passengers to wear kirpans with blades no longer than 10 centimetres. In the security crackdown that followed the 9-11 terrorist attacks, however, Transport Canada imposed a total ban on all “knives or knife-like objects,” including religious ones.

Thursday’s ruling will focus specifically on the school environment. It’s possible, though not certain, that the legal principles could have repercussions in other areas.
© The Canadian Press 2006

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