Kirpan is not a weapon: Ignatieff

what a fool

If Sikhs can run around with daggers why can't Rastas carry bags of weed and smoke it openly.

But a bottle of water is still a bomb threat.

Ask Mr. Harper, he's the one pushing it back to being considered the same threat as cocaine.

It looks like he is pandering to a Religious Multicultural group for votes. It might work.

It's a ceremonial dagger, like a sgian dubh. No more a weapon really than a Gerber multi-tool.

Way to hop on the bandwagon though.

A kitchen knife is not a weapon either, it's a utensile.

Yeah, that's a great comparison.

There aren't many folks wanting to carry a kitchen knife into Parliament though.

Not all Sikhs wear the Kirpan, only the very religious ones, we have many Sikhs here and I have yet to see one wearing it. And by the "hukum" with literally means order or comandment given by their 10th guru it is a defensive weapon more symbolic than anything else and literally a instrument of non violence according to the comandment.

So any Sikh religious enough to be wearing it believes it to be the instrument of non violence.

Just saying... a kirpan is still a weapon.
Now, if they carry the small decorative one that can be used, no problem.

I don't think that is the point tho. THEY can think it is an instrument of non violence. I think the same about my bottle of water. Yet, I am not allowed to bring it on a plane.

That, and why would we make an exception for "the very religious ones"? If I can't bring my Swiss army knife...

Then, "it is not a weapon, it is a religious symbol" is all nice and dandy, but you can still hurt someone badly with it.

That's what they were carrying.