Boreal
KIRPAN III
A Dagger is Drawn
It had to happen. It was only a matter of time. Only our Supreme Court Judges
could not see what would happen when they ruled that children must be allowed to bring concealed weapons to school if it is a requirement of their faith ().
It is now up to a Montréal judge to decide if a thirteen year old Sikh did or did not threaten two thirteen year old classmates with his Kirpan during a school lunch break last September.
It appears that our young Sikh was concerned that two classmates, twin boys, who, all agree, are intellectually challenged, were following him too closely. At one point, it is alleged, he not only took out his Kirpan but the hairpin used to keep his hair inside his turban (devote Sikh don’t usually cut their hair) and threatened the twins.
Julius Grey, the lawyer representing the young Sikh, is the same legal eagle who convinced the Supreme Court of Canada that allowing children and teenagers to carry concealed weapons was a good idea.
This decision is even more alarming when you consider that death and injury from public stabbings is on the rise in most large Canadian urban centers; the concealed knife having replaced the gun as the weapon of choice to settle an argument among the criminal element and would-be thugs or simply to intimidate.
Mr. Grey blames the parents who have “not swallowed the 2006 decision” for his young client finding himself in court. He says they are afraid of children bringing knives to school and will not let it rest.
Can you blame them! The least that parents should be able to expect when they drop their kids off at school is that the school grounds, unlike the city streets, are a weapons-free zone.
Expect more court cases involving children threatening to stab other children at school as the parents of children who are not allowed to bring concealed weapons to school because it is not an article of their faith find ways of arming their kids. Instructions on how to survive a knife fight may replace boxing and karate lessons as to how to deal with schoolyard intimidation.
Bernard Payeur, February 16, 2009