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Ban kirpan from Parliament: Bloc
An emotionally charged debate over multiculturalism that has raged in Quebec in recent years has landed on the national stage and it centres on a ceremonial dagger worn by Sikhs.
MPs face a demand to ban the kirpan, which is worn at all times by at least one Ontario MP.
The discussion is being spurred by the Bloc Québécois, which promised Wednesday to take up the issue with the House of Commons' all-party decision-making body.
That announcement came one day after a headline-grabbing move by security guards at the Quebec legislature to deny entry to four Sikhs because some were carrying kirpans.
That incident became a flashpoint in the province's so-called "reasonable accommodation" debate, an ongoing discussion about where to draw the line on minority rights.
That issue has already been the topic, in Quebec, of impassioned public hearings that led to the government tabling legislation in the form of Bill 94.
The provincial bill would deny government services to Muslim women wearing face-coverings, but the Parti Québécois opposition wants it to go further and regulate kirpans.
Some commentators in English Canada expressed bafflement over this week's incident at the Quebec legislature. But commentary in the province has been almost universally positive, with some flashes of annoyance at the complaints from English Canada.
The Bloc Québécois wasted no time taking up the issue. The party released a statement applauding the previous day's move and announcing it would push the matter in Ottawa.
"It was a well-founded decision [in Quebec] and it is perhaps time that Parliament adopt similar rules," the Bloc's whip, Claude DeBellefeuille, said in a statement.
"It's not a debate about religious symbols or a social debate above and beyond that," she later told The Canadian Press. "It is really a security question and we have to look again at our practices."
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