Exclusion of Kirpan-Wearing Sikhs from Participation in Democratic Institutions in Quebec

Excerpts from the Paper

Oppression in Canada: The Exclusion of Kirpan-Wearing Sikhs from Participation in Democratic Institutions in the Province of Quebec
Introduction – The Form of Oppression Being Examined
The form of oppression in Canada that is the focus of analysis in this essay is the controversy, in January 2011, over the denial of access to public hearings at the Quebec National Assembly to four Sikh men on the grounds of security. This related to the fact that Sikh males – as part of their religious observance – must all wear small daggers or kirpans. As noted in the attached article (The Globe and Mail 2011), the kirpan has been acknowledged by the Canadian Supreme Court and other Canadian legislatures as integral to the religious observances of this...

.....ion of duty.
It is fair to set regulations around the size of the kirpan and how it is secured and sheathed. But it is wrong to bar it completely. British Columbia does not do so. Ottawa does not do so. Imagine the hostile message to religious minorities if the kirpan-wearing Liberal MP Navdeep Bains and others were barred from Parliament.
Sociologist Gérard Bouchard and philosopher Charles Taylor wrote movingly in their government-sponsored report 2½ years ago on accommodation about the need for French-speaking Quebec to find common ground with immigrants and minorities. It is hard to be optimistic when government itself is so cowed.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/a-cowed-legislature-a-banned-kirpan/article1874913/