CANADA, March 2, 2006: (HPI note: This decision would also impact other displays of religious symbols in Canadian schools, such as bindis.) The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday unanimously overturned a Quebec school board’s ban on carrying Sikh ceremonial daggers at school, ruling that it infringed students’ religious freedom under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Gurbaj Singh, 17, challenged the ban after a school prohibited him from carrying the dagger when it accidentally fell from his clothing in 2001. Sikhism requires that Sikh males wear the ceremonial dagger, known as a kirpan, at all times, but they are forbidden to use it as a weapon. CBC News has more. The Canadian ruling comes in the context of international tension over the wearing of religious dress in schools. Sikh turbans have been at the center of several disputes; a US-based Sikh group announced in January that it will use EU anti-discrimination law to challenge a new French law banning religious dress, including Sikh turbans, in state academies.
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