Canadian Court Clears Sikh Youth Charged With Assault

Today's Toronto Star reports that a Canadian teenager in Montreal's youth court was cleared of assault charges after a finding that religious and nationality differences played a part in the case. The youth, a Sikh, was accused by two classmates of threatening them with the pin he used to tuck his hair under his turban and poking one of them with his kirpan that was wrapped in a cloth under his clothing. The incident took place during a lunch break. (See prior posting.) Youth court judge Gilles Ouellet said that technically there was sufficient evidence to convict on the hairpin charge, but the judge gave the boy an unconditional discharge saying: "If the three boys had the same nationality, and the same faith, this case would not have ended up before the court."