Biker Sikh in Canada

I received this from a Canadian friend:

A group of Seiks demonstrates in Brampton in defiance of the helment laws in Ontario Canada, after one of them is fined $150 for riding without his helment. They feel the law does not apply to them because of their religious requirements. We have an RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] Officer who was granted permission to wear a turbin in place of his uniform’s hat for religious reasons. Where is the equality for naturally born Canadians? You might notice there are no Harleys in this group.

Clutch and Chrome reports that this all started when Baljinder Badesha received a ticket in 2005 for not wearing a helmet, because he needed to wear a turbin, instead, and appealed. Judge James Blacklock, who dismissed the case, explained:

Helmets appear to me more likely than not to substantially reduce the risk of head injuries and death to motorcycle riders.

It is certainly clear that in permitting Mr. Badesha and all Sikh adherents who hold his religious views to ride motorcycles without a helmet would not achieve the same level of safety for them.

Marni Soupcoff of the National Post comments that while the “human rights” activists defend the Sikhs “freedom of religion”, and many in Canada feel the Sikh’s should follow the law like everone else, the real question should be whether or not the government has a right to mandate headwear in the first place:

The Ontario Superior Court on Thursday rejected a Sikh man’s claim to a religious-freedom exemption from the province’s law on mandatory motorcycle helmets. Supporters of safety as the holiest of political principles upheld the ruling as a triumph of reason; Sikh organizations denounced it as an act of naked discrimination against their faith. Few stepped forward to defend the idea that an adult in a free society should be able to wear what he wants and take the risks he wants where only his own body is concerned.

That is not only a shame, but it is a development that is awfully hard to account for according to the myth of liberal progress….(more)