Reply #27: maybe you know [View All]

[iverglas]

2. for religious reasons;

The kirpan "is one of the five articles of faith that every baptized Sikh is supposed to have on their person, all the time". I happen to think this is moronic, but then I think all religion is moronic.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/03/02/kirpan-scoc060302.html

But the ruling re-establishes a lower court decision, which allows Sikhs to wear kirpans under certain conditions. The knife must be worn under the clothes and sewn into a sheath.

Under thoses conditions, "the kirpan is almost totally stripped of its objectively dangerous characteristics," the court said. "Access to the kirpan ... is now fully impeded by the cloth envelope sewn around the wooden sheath. In these circumstances, the argument relating to safety can no longer reasonably succeed."

The court threw out arguments from lawyers for the Quebec school board that originally implemented the ban. It said there is no suggestion the kirpan is a weapon of violence or that Gurbaj, who was 12 when the court case started five years ago, intended to use it as one.

The argument is "disrespectful to believers in the Sikh religion and does not take into account Canadian values based on multiculturalism," wrote Justice Louise Charron.

"If some students consider it unfair that Gurbaj Singh may wear his kirpan to school while they are not allowed to have knives in their possession, it is incumbent on the schools to discharge their obligation to instill in their students this value that is ... at the very foundation of our democracy."