Beautiful British Columbia becomes more beautiful for the Sikh Canadians as BC Ferries make a policy decision to allows the  hundreds of Sikh passengers who frequently use the modern ferries between the mainland and the coastal and inland town, to wear the Kirpan while travelling, as already allowed in Canadian trains, courtrooms and elsewhere.

Following up on requests from Sikh passengers who were asked to remove their Kirpans, the World Sikh Organisation, continuing its advocacy role followed up with BC Ferries and persuaded them to evolve and implement a Kirpan accommodation policy.

The BC Ferries Kirpan accommodation policy states that the “practicing at all times while on board, the Kirpan must be kept sheathed, worn underneath clothing and must not be visible to other passengers.

Expressing surprise that BC Ferries did not have an accommodation policy for the Kirpan heretofore, WSO Vice President for British Columbia Amanpreet Singh Hundal said, “while the law is clear that the kirpan must be accommodated in Canada, we still see examples of where Sikhs are told they cannot wear their articles of faith.  We are grateful to BC Ferries for having worked with us to ensure Sikhs wearing the kirpan can travel while freely practicing their faith and we also thank the individuals who were affected for having reached out to us so we could resolve this not just for them, but for the entire community.”

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Surrey, 14 November 2018, WSN News Desk