Ottawa: April 12, 2005
The Supreme Court of Canada reserved judgment Tuesday
on the case of a Sikh student who was forbidden from
wearing his ceremonial dagger in class.
It's the first time the issue has come before the
country's highest court.
The controversy began in 2001 when Gurbaj Singh Multani's
kirpan -- a dagger he is required to wear under the
tenets of his Sikh religion -- dropped out in his
Montreal elementary school yard.
After hundreds of parents pressured the school board
to enforce a zero-tolerance policy on weapons, the
board banned the 12-year-old from wearing the dagger,
saying it posed a danger to others.
In response, the Multani family launched a lawsuit
and moved the boy to a private school, where he is
permitted to wear a kirpan.
The Multanis won this lawsuit but the school board's
position was upheld by the Quebec Court of Appeal
13 months ago.
The court ruled that the ban was a reasonable limit
to the Charter's guarantee of freedom of religion.
The trial has reignited a controversy from the 1990s
when school boards in cities such as Vancouver and
Toronto agreed to permit the kirpans as long as the
students would carefully conceal them.
The Globe and Mail reported a Canadian Civil Liberties
Association brief sides with the Multanis, saying:
"The 'zero tolerance' policy makes no attempt
to accommodate religious freedom or even to balance
the competing rights and interests at stake."
Meanwhile, the lawyer for the Multani family, Julius
Grey argues that pens, geometry compasses, and automobiles
should be considered weapons if kirpans are held to
be dangerous.
"A central point I will be making involves the
danger of taking security too far," Grey told
The Globe.
"How far can you restrain religious freedom?"
With files from The Canadian Press
