Canadian court rejects Sikh dagger ban

OTTAWA, March 2 (UPI) -- Canada's Supreme Court Thursday ruled a Sikh boy can wear his ceremonial dagger to school.

The court ruled 8-0 a total ban on the kirpan violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee of religious freedom, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The court rejected arguments by the Ste-Catherine-Laboure school in LaSalle that the kirpan represented a danger to Gurbaj Singh's classmates.

Gurbaj told the CBC he thinks the ban grew out of ignorance about his religion.

After the ruling was released, Gurbaj said he believes the case arose out of ignorance of his faith.

"This is an article of faith," the youth said. "We do not use it, we do not take it out. That's a restriction."