2006: Supreme Court: Kirpans in Schools

In 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in a 9-0 decision that the Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys’s absolute prohibition on the wearing of kirpans by Sikh students was an unjustifiable infringement of freedom of religion.

WSO intervened on behalf of Gurbaj Singh Multani and provided the Supreme Court of Canada a Sikh perspective on the kirpan that helped the court understand that the kirpan should not be treated as a weapon but an article of faith.

The Multani decision fully established that the kirpan must be accommodated in Canada.