Sikh loses rights to wear Turbin while riding motorcycle.
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Sikh loses rights to wear Turbin while riding motorcycle. - 3/8/2008 6:56:54 AM
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Yellotang
Posts: 3150
Joined: 4/24/2006
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Thought I would use this story to bring attention to the new "Motorcycle Activists" Forum.
It would be fair to say that this story is being posted not as a joke but as a possible real issue.
Judge rules against Sikh motorcyclist who says Ont. helmet law is discriminatoryOriginal Story http://www.news1130.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n030642A
March 6, 2008 - 2:12 pm
By: Jered Stuffco, THE CANADIAN PRESS
BRAMPTON, Ont. - A devout, motorcycle-riding Sikh who fought Ontario's helmet law on the grounds his religion compels him to wear a turban lost his court battle Thursday in a ruling decried by fellow Sikh motorcyclists as a "devastating precedent against minorities."
Ontario Court Justice James Blacklock ruled that while the impact on Baljinder Badesha's religious rights were more than just "trivial," that consideration was overwhelmed by the "undue hardship" helmetless motorcycle riders would put on the province due to safety concerns and health-care costs.
"The evidence before me shows that to ride a motorcycle helmetless involves the imposition of significant extra risks related to safety," Blacklock wrote in his 35-page ruling. Given that the law is designed to keep people safe, Blacklock wrote that "the true importance of motorcycle helmets are understood by the rational person."
Badesha, a devout Sikh, says his religion forbids him from covering his turban and he shouldn't be made to choose between his faith and his motorcycle. The 39-year-old father of four saw his fight championed by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which challenged the constitutional validity of the province's Highway Traffic Act.
Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley said Thursday he had yet to fully read the ruling, but added "from the Ontario government's perspective, our concern was one of public safety." Badesha was handed a $110 ticket in September 2005 for riding without a helmet in Brampton, Ont., some 45 kilometres northwest of Toronto.
Despite Thursday's ruling, Badesha appeared to be in good spirits - joking outside court that he might sell his motorcycle. Justice Blacklock said Badesha had 30 days to pay the fine, but defence lawyer Melvin Sokolsky said his client was mulling an appeal.
Members of the Sikh community decried the decision and pointed to other Canadian jurisdictions, such as Manitoba and British Columbia, where Sikhs are exempt from provincial helmet laws.
"It's a wrong, devastating precedent against minorities," Harjiner Thind said in a telephone interview.
Thind, president of the Vancouver-area Sikh Motorcycle Club, said dozens of his members ride daily without helmets and they've yet to encounter any safety problems.
"In England, in Manitoba, in British Columbia, Sikhs are allowed to do that - I do it myself," he said.
"Sikhs should be allowed. That's the religious symbol; we cannot be separated from the turban." Badesha's ultimate goal, said Sokolsky, is to see the Ontario legislature to grant an exemption for Sikh motorcyclists.
"It's a process and he understands that, and he's prepared to do it in a lawful and reasonable manner, without undue emotion," Sokolsky said.
"He has certain rights he wants to uphold."
Thind, who has followed Badesha's case, said Crown evidence presented in court which suggested a turban can uncoil at high speeds was irrelevant because the tests were conducted in a wind tunnel which simulated speeds of 300 km/h.
Sikhs in Ontario shouldn't have to choose between the law and their religion, said Malkit Singh Rai, a member of the B.C.-based motorcycle club.
"I wear my turban all the time," he said. "I ride in town, h
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RE: Sikh loses rights to wear Turbin while riding motor... - 3/8/2008 9:28:19 AM
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Rhubarb
Posts: 5234
Joined: 11/18/2005
From: Concord, CA
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There may finally be a loophole!
Not that I want to ride without a helmet, but once the ruling is made for Sikhs, and it probably will the doors will be opened for everyone to decide for themselves.
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RE: Sikh loses rights to wear Turbin while riding motor... - 3/11/2008 8:59:53 PM
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Yellotang
Posts: 3150
Joined: 4/24/2006
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Update
Turban wearing motorcycle rider heads back to court
By the Staff of Clutch and Chrome
March 11th, 2008
The motorcycle riding world watched Ontario Canada over the last few months, focusing on a legal case contesting the helmet law on religious grounds.
It was the story read around the world as a Sikh wearing rider Baljinder Badesha, 39, disputed a $110 ticket for riding his 1994 Yamaha motorcycle in the fall of 2005 and ended up fighting Ontario's motorcycle helmet law.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission was on Mr. Badesha's side, making arguments in court that the law forced the defendant to choose between his love of motorcycle riding and his religion.
When Mr. Badesha lost the case on March 7th, he wasn't sure if he would continue with legal actions, claiming among a sea of supporters that no decision had been made.
According to the South Asian Focus, Mr. Badesha has decided to challenge the law on the same religious grounds, but in the interest of the entire Sikh community.
Last Thursday when Judge James Blacklock announced his decision in court he said, "Helmets appear to me more likely than not to substantially reduce the risk of head injuries and death to motorcycle riders."
"It is certainly clear that in permitting Mr. Badesha and all Sikh adherents who hold his religious views to ride motorcycles without a helmet would not achieve the same level of safety for them," continued Judge Blacklock.
However, the planned appeal is hoped to change the law itself rather fight the $110 fine.
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RE: Sikh loses rights to wear Turbin while riding motor... - 3/12/2008 9:02:49 AM
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chiabate
Posts: 3462
Joined: 10/26/2006
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I guess we'll wait and see exactly how liberal Ontario is.
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RE: Sikh loses rights to wear Turbin while riding motor... - 3/13/2008 5:11:36 AM
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squirrely
Posts: 33
Joined: 4/13/2007
From: Ontario
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Here's an update...The guy's now going to appeal.
From the Totonto Sun
Squirrely
Thu, March 13, 2008
Turbanator plans to rev up appeal
A turban-wearing biker who was told last week he wasn't exempt from the province's helmet law plans to appeal the judge's ruling. Baljinder Singh Badesha, 39, of Brampton, told the Sun he plans to file the notice next week, well within the 15-day appeal period. He said fighting the $110 ticket he received two and a half years ago for riding a motorcycle without a helmet in Brampton isn't just for his own sake anymore. Nor is it just for Sikhs. Now, he said, it's a broader fight for religious accommodation. "Other communities, too, are supporting me," he said, adding he's hopeful his right to practice his faith and ride a motorcycle will be recognized in the appellate court. "We're very confident." fctAdTag("bigbox",MyGenericTagVar,1);
Badesha had been fighting the ticket, with the help of lawyers from the province's Human Rights Commission, on the grounds the helmet law discriminated against him because of his faith. His defence argued that is not allowed under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But in Justice James Blacklock's ruling, delivered a week ago today in Brampton, safety won out over Badesha's religious freedom. "The evidence before me seems to be incontrovertible that helmets markedly reduce deaths and head injuries experienced by motorcycle riders," the judge wrote in his 34-page decision. "These increased dangers would arise every time Mr. Badesha or other similarly situate to him got on a motorcycle. "It would appear that those risks are probably at a level that we can be certain that there will be members of the Sikh community who will be seriously injured or die because they rode a motorcycle without a helmet."
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RE: Sikh loses rights to wear Turbin while riding motor... - 4/7/2008 2:08:13 PM
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gjb1952
Posts: 437
Joined: 3/15/2008
From: Milwaukee, Wi....Land of the Free
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Oh Boy, now I have to learn how to wrap a turban!!!
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RE: Sikh loses rights to wear Turbin while riding motor... - 4/8/2008 9:14:10 AM
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Yellotang
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quote:
ORIGINAL: gjb1952
Oh Boy, now I have to learn how to wrap a turban!!!
I just wonder how those things stay on your head going down the road. 
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RE: Sikh loses rights to wear Turbin while riding motor... - 4/11/2008 11:25:35 AM
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italian biker
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I believe in riders choice myself, but to accuse the helmet law of being discriminatory is rediculous. In a similar situation here in the states, some muslim woman was in a tizzy about her driver's license picture and having to uncover her face for it, and then the race card gets played again. I understand their beliefs and wanting to abide by them, but you are in a nation that has freedom to pick and choose your religion, you do not have the freedom to pick and choose what law you want to disobey because of some tradition your chosen religion may have.
Abide or challenge the law are your options. Do they expect us to believe that when the helmet law up there was put in place, that some politician said "Hey, lets pass a helmet law for motorcyclists, the Sikhs will have to remove their turbans." It's utterly rediculous to use or buy into that argument. What's next, a seat belt will ruin my suntan in a convertable and it's against my sun worshiping to have a tan line from a seatbelt across my tan?
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