Come 27 No­vem­ber and prac­tis­ing Sikh Cana­di­ans will be al­lowed to carry their kir­pans on do­mes­tic and in­ter­na­tional flights, ex­cept those go­ing to the US an­nounces Trans­port Canada.

In a wel­come re­lief to all prac­tis­ing Sikh Cana­di­ans, Trans­port Canada has taken a de­ci­sion to al­low Kir­pans with a blade of 6 cen­time­tres on do­mes­tic and in­ter­na­tional flights bar­ring those ter­mi­nat­ing in the US, from 27 No­vem­ber 2917 on­wards.

As per the an­nounce­ment, Trans­port Canada has amended the pro­hib­ited items list so that “very small knife blades (6 cm or less—about the size of a large pa­per clip) will not be pro­hib­ited on do­mes­tic or in­ter­na­tional flights.” 

The World Sikh Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Canada has wel­comed the de­ci­sion as ear­lier this year WSO had reached out to Trans­port Canada en­cour­ag­ing the adop­tion of the in­ter­na­tional stan­dard so that Sikhs wear­ing the kir­pan could be ac­com­mo­dated.

“These changes to screen­ing pro­ce­dures will bring Canada in line with in­ter­na­tional stan­dards and our part­ner coun­tries, while con­tin­u­ing to keep pas­sen­gers safe.”

Marc Gar­neau, Cana­dian Min­is­ter for Trans­port

Sikhs in In­dia are al­lowed to wear the Kir­pan on do­mes­tic flights.

While an­nounc­ing the change in pol­icy, Min­is­ter for Trans­port Marc Gar­neau has stated that, “The safety and se­cu­rity of Cana­di­ans, the trav­el­ling pub­lic, and the trans­porta­tion sys­tem are Trans­port Canada’s top pri­or­i­ties. These changes to screen­ing pro­ce­dures will bring Canada in line with in­ter­na­tional stan­dards and our part­ner coun­tries, while con­tin­u­ing to keep pas­sen­gers safe. The Gov­ern­ment of Canada re­mains vig­i­lant in con­tin­u­ously as­sess­ing se­cu­rity risks.”

WSO Pres­i­dent Mukhbir Singh said, “we wel­come to­day’s an­nounce­ment.  We had shared our con­cerns with Trans­port Canada last spring with re­spect to the ac­com­mo­da­tion of small kir­pans and re­mained in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with them over this mat­ter.  By adopt­ing the Eu­ro­pean Union stan­dard on blade length, Sikh trav­ellers in Canada will be able to wear kir­pans with blades of up to 6cm in length.”

“We wel­come to­day’s an­nounce­ment. By adopt­ing the Eu­ro­pean Union stan­dard on blade length, Sikh trav­ellers in Canada will be able to wear kir­pans with blades of up to 6cm in length.”

Mukhbir Singh, Pres­i­dent, WSO

Singh Sabha Mum­bai Gen­eral Sec­re­tary Man­mo­han Singh told the WSN, “This is a sig­nif­i­cant de­vel­op­ment. Both the WSO and Trans­port Canada de­serve con­grat­u­la­tions for their ap­proach and un­der­stand­ing of the sig­nif­i­cance of the 5 Ks.”

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Tak­ing a prac­ti­cal stand­point, WSO has ap­prised Sikh trav­ellers that ad­her­ence would be strictly en­forced and has called upon prac­tis­ing Am­rit­d­hari Sikh trav­ellers to com­ply.