CANADA HAS BANNED GUNS AND GOT A CRIME-WAVE IN RESPONSE. NOW THEY ARE BANNING CEREMONIAL DAGGERS. I WONDER WHERE THAT LOGIC LEADS US?

And note that Sikhs are NOT Moslems. It is a different religion altogether

A Sikh man is considering taking Via Rail to the Ontario Human Rights Commission because the Crown corporation won't let him wear his ceremonial dagger on its trains. On Friday, Balpreet Singh was ordered off a Via train as he was about to travel home to Toronto. Another passenger had complained about his kirpan. "To be led off a train that's filled ... [is] absolutely humiliating," said the first-year law student at the University of Ottawa. Singh, 24, says he wears the kirpan for religious reasons. He says he is never without it, even while attending class. "This is essentially one of the signs of the Sikh faith," he said. "It's absolutely required. I'm never apart from this, whether I'm sleeping or whatever. It's basically considered part of my body. "I consider that one of my fundamental freedoms ... [and my] freedom of religion is being infringed."

Via has a policy of not allowing anything that could be considered a weapon on its trains, even if that weapon is only used for ceremonial purposes. News of Singh's situation dismayed the prime minister's parliamentary secretary, Navdeep Bains. The Toronto-area member of Parliament, who is also a Sikh, says he's never had a problem wearing a kirpan in the House of Commons. He says he's disappointed that a Crown corporation would try to ban them. Bains said he plans to take the issue up with the federal transport minister and with Via's board of directors.

In Canada, the debate over whether to allow Sikhs to wear kirpans in public places has been going on for more than a decade. As well as Via trains, the daggers are banned from airplanes, Greyhound buses and some schools.

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