Should daggers be allowed in the national assembly, Quebec’s legislative body? That’s the gross oversimplification that Quebec politicians are debating in the latest conflict between Quebec and religious minorities over the issue of religious accommodation.
Earlier this week, four Sikhs carrying kirpans—small symbolic daggers carried by most Sikh men—were denied entrance to Quebec’s national assembly. The Parti Quebecois are the primary movers behind the decision, and now their federal party relatives, the Bloc Quebecois are petitioning to have the kirpan banned in Parliament as well.
At first glance, the solution seems obvious. Religious or not, weapons shouldn’t be permitted in legislative bodies. No one would expect to be allowed to carry a hunting knife into Parliament. But then again, the physical threat represented by the kirpan isn’t entirely clear. One editorialist called the government silly and reactionary, claiming that a kirpan can’t even cut through a banana. Another pointed out that a Sikh man was stabbed in Brampton, Ontario, last spring with a kirpan wielded by another Sikh. Kirpans, which range in size and sharpness, are allowed in schools, so long as they are underneath clothing and sewn inside their sheaths, and permitted on VIA Rail trains, but not on airplanes. Consider also that a Liberal MP from Toronto has been wearing a kirpan in the House of Commons for years now.
Clearly, making a decision based on any one of the ad hoc precedents for the kirpan isn’t an option, and an absolutist list of religious items that could be considered security threats—in somewhat far-fetched, “what if” scenarios—is not the solution. For example, the four Sikh men were testifying regarding Bill 94, which would ban the niqab, a veil worn by some Muslim women, from public places in Quebec for fear that anyone could be concealing their identity under it. The government of Quebec isn’t trying to toe the faint, squiggly line between security and accommodation. They have made it clear that they are choosing security and letting the accusations of intolerance fly as they may.
Initially, my reaction is to agree with the ban on kirpans. But given the minimal risk it poses and the number of public places where it’s currently permitted (and recurrent tendencies toward xenophobia within Quebec nationalism), a small dull kirpan does not pose much of a security risk to the national assembly. As the Bloc Quebecois secularism critic put it, “Multiculturalism is not a Quebec value. It may be a Canadian one but it is not a Quebec one.” In regards to the kirpan and the niqab, Quebec is wrong to put that statement into practice. At the same time, we must recognize that some kirpans are clearly dangerous weapons (do a quick internet search if you don’t believe me). Small, dull kirpans should be permitted in public places, including Parliament, where at least one MP has been permitted to wear one for years—while kirpans of the hunting knife variety definitely should not.
