The Supreme Court of Canada has disallowed the World Sikh Organization the leave to appeal against the decision of the Quebec National Assembly to not permit WSO representatives Harminder Kaur and Balpreet Singh to present their views in January 2011 on Bill 94 which would deny essential government services, public employment to individuals who wear facial coverings.

Expressing the reaction of the WSO to the decision, WSO President Mukhbir Singh said, “we are disappointed by today’s decision to deny leave to appeal in the Singh v. A.G. of Quebec case.  While we appreciate that this decision is not so much about the kirpan as it is about parliamentary privilege, we believe that there continues to be a serious violation of freedom of religion by excluding Sikhs who wear the kirpan from the Quebec National Assembly.”

In February 2018, the Quebec Court of Appeal had rejected the WSO’s appeal on the grounds that the Quebec National Assembly may exclude individuals based on parliamentary privilege. The Superior Court decision had upheld the authority of the Quebec National Assembly to “exclude kirpans from its precincts as an assertion of parliamentary privilege over the exclusion of strangers.”

The Quebec Court of Appeal decision noted that the court  “make[s] no comment whether the assembly’s exercise of the privilege to exclude the kirpan is a wise decision.”

Earlier in October this year, the Supreme Court of Canada released a decision in the case Chagnon v. Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec which developed a new framework for legislatures exercising parliamentary privilege when Charter rights are at stake.  The framework developed in Chagnon replaced the framework that was used to decide Singh v. A.G. Quebec.

In a sharp response, the WSO has stated that, “excluding an entire religious community from the province’s legislature is deeply troubling.  Given the political climate in Quebec with the current government threatening a ban on religious symbols in general, we fear that religious minorities in Quebec risk being marginalized and excluded even further. While we were hopeful that our case would be revisited based on the new framework for parliamentary privilege developed by the Supreme Court of Canada in the recently released Chagnon case, we are reviewing all our options under Canadian and international law.”

The WSO’s team was excluded from the hearing before the Committee on Institutions because they were wearing the kirpan.

Now the Supreme Court of Canada has denied the WSO’s leave application to appeal the Quebec Court of Appeal decision. The Québec National Assembly is the only legislature in the whole of Canada where the kirpan is prohibited.

Ottawa, 25 October 2018, WSN News Bureau