OTTAWA (PTI): Orthodox Sikhs can continue to wear turbans in Royal Canadian Mounted Police Force instead of the force’s traditional Stetson, the Federal Court of Canada has ruled.
In a battle that pitted one of Canada’s most traditional symbols against its multiculturalism, the Sikhs have emerged victorious. But the fight apparently is not over and the ruling is likely to be appealed by the petitioners.
The petitioners consisted of an Alberta group that included three former RCMP officers and a former Mountie’s wife.
Rendering her argument against the petition, Justice Barbara Reed agreed police must be neutral, from political or religious bias, but any evidence that turban-wearing officers might be biased was “quite speculative and vague. “She noted.
The four Albertans filed a suit in 1991, claiming that the decision of the former RCMP commissioner Norman Inkster, when he permitted Sikh officers to wear their religious headgear while in uniform, offended the force’s non-religious nature and was discriminatory.
The group went to court after a Signature Campaign to stop turbans among the Mounties failed arguing that the uniform of RCMP should be neutral and not show their religion in any form.
Most major police forces across Canada permit Sikhs to wear turbans, and over the years changes have been made to allow the headgear in such places as courts and the House of Commons.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 12, 1994
