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  • Baljinder Badesha
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  • Baljinder Singh Badesha is a 40 year old father of four who lives in brampton, immigrated to Canada in 1989 from India where he was an avid motorcyclist. He was charged in mid-2005 in Ontario for not wearing a helmet while driving his 2003 Honda Shadow. Since then, he is fighting a $110 ticket he received for wearing a turban (dastar). He argued in the court that he never worn helmets and that he should be left alone to make his own decisions about headgear as per his Sikh faith. Baljinder supported by the Ontario Human Rights Commission he challenged the Ontario’s helmet law maintaining that the helmet law discriminates against Sikhs because their religion obliges them to cover their long hair with nothing else but a turban. His lawyers say that their client is far too religious to consid
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concern
  • This article is about a living person who meets all three criteria for WP:BLP1E for deletion.
Timestamp
  • 20120707214017
abstract
  • Baljinder Singh Badesha is a 40 year old father of four who lives in brampton, immigrated to Canada in 1989 from India where he was an avid motorcyclist. He was charged in mid-2005 in Ontario for not wearing a helmet while driving his 2003 Honda Shadow. Since then, he is fighting a $110 ticket he received for wearing a turban (dastar). He argued in the court that he never worn helmets and that he should be left alone to make his own decisions about headgear as per his Sikh faith. Baljinder supported by the Ontario Human Rights Commission he challenged the Ontario’s helmet law maintaining that the helmet law discriminates against Sikhs because their religion obliges them to cover their long hair with nothing else but a turban. His lawyers say that their client is far too religious to consider compromising his beliefs. He under the auspices of the Ontario Human Rights Commission conducted an experiment in 2007 where he drove around Cayuga Speedway on motorcycle while wearing a turban at 110 kilometres an hour in order to disprove a Crown theory that turbans unravel at high speed and cause accidents. The Crown case initially questioned the sincerity of Badesha's religious convictions, however, later its main argument was based on increased costs to the health system, should helmet less Sikh motorcycle riders end up suffering head injuries. The petitioner vowed to further challenge his cause. India and Britain exempt Sikhs from wearing helmets, as do Manitoba and British Columbia, where a human-rights challenge precipitated the exemption. The United States has also made legal exceptions to Sikhs and other individuals based on religious grounds.