NO SPECIAL TREATMENT

As Canadian society becomes ever more pluralistic, minority religious
practices increasingly come into conflict with laws designed for
universal application. The controversy this year over the wearing of
the niqab in Quebec highlighted the clash between religious freedom
and our society's baseline expectation of equality in the treatment of
men and women. Similarly, in British Columbia, the provincial
government recently asked its courts to rule on the constitutionality
of polygamy laws, in response to a religious sect that practices
multiple marriage.

And now in Ontario, two incidents - one outside the courtroom, one in
it - are pitting religious freedom against the criminal law, reviving
an old controversy and raising a new one.

The first involves the wearing of the kirpan, or Sikh ceremonial
dagger. Canada's Sikh community has argued for decades that members
are entitled to carry this blade as a symbol of faith and their
commitment to confront evil. In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the
kirpan could be worn by Sikh students, even in the classroom, on the
condition that it be sewn into its sheath and worn under clothing.

Last week, lawyer Manjit Mangat suffered serious stab wounds when he
was attacked with a kirpan outside a community centre in Brampton.
There have been three other incidents of violence in Toronto involving
the daggers in the past few years, in addition to stabbings in British
Columbia and Quebec. The latest attack has renewed calls for the
wearing of kirpans to be banned, on the basis of public safety.

The second controversy involves the use of marijuana. In an Ontario
courtroom this week, members of the "Church of the Universe" are
challenging the constitutionality of Canada's prohibition against pot.
In their church, apparently, cannabis is a sacrament, the "tree of
life," and they claim to have a right to consume it on religious
grounds. At issue in this case is not only the right to practise one's
faith, but the definition of faith itself. Is the Church of the
Universe, founded in an Ontario quarry in 1969, a true "religion" in
the generally accepted sense of the word? Are its "traditions," which
include not only pot smoking but also nudity, deserving of legal protection?

Both these matters illustrate that making exceptions to major public
policy issues on religious grounds is fraught with danger. In the case
of the kirpan controversy, whatever its symbolic value and despite the
arguments of the Sikh community, the reality is that in the wrong
hands, a kirpan is a weapon. Non-Sikh Canadians cannot walk openly in
public, on planes or in schools, wearing a six-inch blade or other
deadly device. Making an exception for kirpans on religious grounds
creates an unacceptable double standard, and puts members of the
public at risk of harm, however small.

With regard to the plea to allow pot-smoking, while many Canadians may
not consider the Church of the Universe a bona fide faith, most do not
dispute the need to reform our country's marijuana laws. An Angus Reid
poll in 2007 found that 55% of respondents supported marijuana
legalization; another Angus Reid survey in 2009 in British Columbia
found that two-thirds of respondents would legalize marijuana, in
large part to combat violence caused by the drug trade. And so we
stand with the "Church of the Universe" on the broader issue of drug
reform.

But such reform must be of universal application. Allowing the Church
- - or anyone else - ad hoc exemptions would create a double standard.

Our laws should apply equally to all. Freedom to practise one's faith
is not absolute; it must respect the rights and restrictions which
attach to all citizens, and those restrictions should not be lifted
for a select few, even if they claim to be following a higher power.