Provincial legislators have unanimously voted to support a ban on kirpans within the Quebec National Assembly, in a controversial move that has "disappointed" the Canadian wing of the World Sikh Organization.
On Wednesday, the Quebec legislature voted in favour of a Parti Quebecois-led motion banning the kirpan from its premises.
The Liberals voted in favour of the motion, along with the Action democratique and Quebec solidaire opposition parties.
The province's immigration minister, Kathleen Weil pushed to have the motion reworded to stress that it was a security-related decision. She also said she believed the motion was unnecessary.
In total, 113 of the total 125 Quebec legislators were present for Wednesday's vote.
The vote came about three weeks after a group of Sikhs was turned away from the legislature when they refused to hand over their kirpans to security.
PQ secularism critic Louise Beaudoin said the decision to ban the kirpan from the legislature comes down to a choice between religious freedom and security.
But the World Sikh Organization of Canada released a statement Wednesday saying that the debate in Quebec has wrongly politicized the kirpan, despite a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada years ago that the ceremonial dagger "is not a weapon, but an article of faith."
Balpreet Singh, the legal counsel for the WSOC, said the organization had tried to reach out to Quebec politicians before Wednesday's vote.
"We had expressed a desire to sit down with security at the National Assembly and have a rational discussion about the kirpan but it seems this debate is no longer about the niqab or the kirpan, it's about the inclusion of minorities in Quebec," Singh said in a statement released after the vote in the Quebec legislature.
The decision to ban the kirpan contradicts the standing policy in the House of Commons, where kirpans are allowed and at least one Liberal MP wears the ceremonial dagger on a daily basis. The World Sikh Organization says Sikhs are also permitted to wear kirpans in the Supreme Court of Canada and at all other provincial legislatures.
In Quebec City yesterday, Beaudoin suggested that while multiculturalism may be the official policy in Ottawa, it has never been a Quebec value.
Beaudoin also said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron have also openly questioned the wisdom of multiculturalism.
WSOC president Prem Singh Vinning said it was "unfortunate" that PQ politicians were suggesting that multiculturalism was not a value in Quebec.
"It's unfortunate that the PQ believes multiculturalism is a value in Canada but not in Quebec," Vinning said in a statement.
"We feel multiculturalism is not just a Canadian value, but a liberal democratic one that allows us all to live together harmoniously."
With files from The Canadian Press
