The Bloc Quebecois has called for the Sikh (pronounced seek) kirpan to be banned from Parliament. This stems from security officers’ decision to deny entry into the Quebec legislature to four Sikhs because they were wearing kirpans.
The kirpan is a sword or dagger carried by baptized Sikhs, and, as outlined on wikipedia.org, as per “a mandatory religious commandment given by Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth Guru of Sikhism)…all baptized Sikhs (Khalsa) must wear a kirpan at all times”http://forums.canadiancontent.net/#_edn1.
The kirpan is a symbol and weapon. “Symbolically, the kirpan represents the power of truth to cut through untruth.” As a weapon, it is a defensive one and “it is an instrument of ahimsa or non-violence…[and] ahimsa is to actively prevent violence, not to simply stand by idly whilst violence is being done.”[ii]
This is issue has reopened the debate on reasonable accommodation – “an ongoing discussion about where to draw the line on minority rights.”[iii] It is illegal to wear weapons in Canada even if only for defensive purposes, but the wearing of a kirpan is also a matter of faith-fulfillment.
Some Sikhs wear a small kirpan-shaped pennant around their necks while others insist the kirpan need be available as a defensive weapon, and, therefore, a pennant does not fulfill their duty to their faith. Does the kirpan itself need be banned from certain functions, arenas? Kirpans have been banned on airplanes, but is Parliament equal to the confined space of a plane?
Some accommodations need to be made, but the availability of the kirpan as a defensive weapon seems like a reasonable place to draw the line. Rather than banning the kirpan altogether, perhaps banning the availability of it would better serve all involved; that it need be under clothing or sheathed in a sheath that disallows unsheathing.
[FONT="]The item itself is not of issue, what is of concern is its function as a weapon. Ban the weapon element of the kirpan that is mainly ceremonial if any ban is to be made, not the kirpan itself.[/FONT]
http://forums.canadiancontent.net/#_ednref1 Kirpan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[ii] Kirpan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[iii] CBC News - Montreal - Ban kirpan from Parliament: Bloc
The kirpan is a sword or dagger carried by baptized Sikhs, and, as outlined on wikipedia.org, as per “a mandatory religious commandment given by Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth Guru of Sikhism)…all baptized Sikhs (Khalsa) must wear a kirpan at all times”http://forums.canadiancontent.net/#_edn1.
The kirpan is a symbol and weapon. “Symbolically, the kirpan represents the power of truth to cut through untruth.” As a weapon, it is a defensive one and “it is an instrument of ahimsa or non-violence…[and] ahimsa is to actively prevent violence, not to simply stand by idly whilst violence is being done.”[ii]
This is issue has reopened the debate on reasonable accommodation – “an ongoing discussion about where to draw the line on minority rights.”[iii] It is illegal to wear weapons in Canada even if only for defensive purposes, but the wearing of a kirpan is also a matter of faith-fulfillment.
Some Sikhs wear a small kirpan-shaped pennant around their necks while others insist the kirpan need be available as a defensive weapon, and, therefore, a pennant does not fulfill their duty to their faith. Does the kirpan itself need be banned from certain functions, arenas? Kirpans have been banned on airplanes, but is Parliament equal to the confined space of a plane?
Some accommodations need to be made, but the availability of the kirpan as a defensive weapon seems like a reasonable place to draw the line. Rather than banning the kirpan altogether, perhaps banning the availability of it would better serve all involved; that it need be under clothing or sheathed in a sheath that disallows unsheathing.
[FONT="]The item itself is not of issue, what is of concern is its function as a weapon. Ban the weapon element of the kirpan that is mainly ceremonial if any ban is to be made, not the kirpan itself.[/FONT]
http://forums.canadiancontent.net/#_ednref1 Kirpan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[ii] Kirpan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[iii] CBC News - Montreal - Ban kirpan from Parliament: Bloc