Zero Tolerance? Sikh Swords, School Safety, and Secularism in Québec

This article examines an officially resolved, yet still controversial, debate over the right of Sikh students in Québec to carry kirpāns (or ceremonial daggers) as markers of religious identity to public school. It documents the ways in which conflicting Canadian and Québécois conceptions of secularism influenced how various non-Sikh participants in the debate responded to Sikh presentations of the kirpān. Yet, it also demonstrates how Sikh activists selectively engaged the competing discourses on secularism in ways that furthered their interests. Although Sikhs were forced to defer to dominant sensibilities in articulating their religious traditions, their alignment of those traditions with mainstream values helped to preserve their distinctive identity. At the same time, Sikh activists forced non-Sikhs to reevaluate the purpose of secularism, an issue of fundamental concern to national and regional identity. Thus, by analyzing the interplay of arguments in this case, this article illuminates the various ways in which debates over minority religious expression shape formations of the secular.