Careless handling of turban of a Sikh by the police has caused trouble for the cops.
In December 2014,Peel Regional Police arrested Sardul Singh, a religious Sikh man for
for drunk driving after a RIDE spot-check showed that he had excessive blood alcohol level.
After his arrest, Singh was handcuffed and put into a police cruiser but in the process of entering the car, his turban was accidentally knocked off his head.
For some reason, it took police three hours before they returned the turban to Singh and they wouldn’t even temporarily uncuff him to put the turban back on his head, although one officer had attempted, unsuccessfully, to put the turban back on.After the incident, Singh went to court to argue that his charter rights were violated, because his turban was not returned to him in a “timely manner” which caused him to feel shame, due to his “sincere belief that wearing a turban was an act of religious observance as an observant Sikh.”
The court agreed with him, as Judge Jill Copeland found that “the officers involved in Singh’s arrest and detention acted in a careless manner in relation to Mr. Singh’s right to freedom of religion in relation to the turban.”
This violation of his religious freedom was especially egregious, because Peel Regional police introduced a policy in 2012 that actually addresses the issue of turbans for those who have been taken into custody.
According to the policy, the only exception where a turban may not be returned to a person swiftly is where police are conducting a search of the person, there are security or safety concerns, or if the person was suicidal – none of which applied in this case.
The drunk driving charge was dismissed.
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