September 04, 2005
Kelly Batke
British Columbia Soccer Association,
1126 Douglas Road,
Burnaby, BC V5C 4Z6
Phone: 604-299-6401 ext 234
Dear Kelly,
Today in Abbotsford, the BC Sikh community came together and celebrated the first formal installation of its holy scripture and enlightener, the Guru Granth Sahib, at the Harimandir Sahib (commonly known as the Golden Temple) in Amritsar, Punjab in 1604.
This was the first time in human history that a scripture was made the formal leader of a religion and since then the Sikh community bows to the divine light of truth that is contained in those verses. Today was a very joyous day of celebration for the entire Sikh community, so it was disheartening to watch the report on BC CTV about Gurinder Dhah from Calgary Northwest United being barred, and his whole team being forced to the sidelines, due to a discriminatory rule of the BC Soccer Association, at this weekends annual Langley Labour Day tournament.
This rule of banning turbans in soccer tournaments is absolutely unacceptable in our multicultural Canadian society, and furthermore, the turban is an integral part of the Sikh identity and the rule is an invasion of Gurinder’s religious rights protected by Canadian laws.
We are extremely disappointed with the tournament organizers and the BC Soccer Association and we will encourage all the members of our community to voice their complaint against this organization for their inappropriate treatment of Gurinder and his teammates.
We demand that the BC Soccer Association issue an apology to Gurinder, his coach, and his teammates, and remove this rule so that Sikh players can play with their turbans in future soccer tournaments.
Sincerely,
Volunteers,
the Sikh youth of BC
www.bcsikhyouth.com
sikhyouth@shaw.ca
cc: Vancouver Sun
cc: Province Newspaper
cc: Langley Labour Day Tournament
cc: BC CTV
