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A woman who took legal action in Montreal seeking permission to wear a pirate hat or colander in her driver’s licence photo not only got denied in Superior Court, she got a rebuke from Judge Stéphane Sansfaçon for wasting court resources.

In his ruling, the judge said the time of employees and lawyers and a half-day of courtroom availability were devoted to Isabelle Narayana’s suit, at a time when judicial resources are limited.

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“Too many people implicated in real litigation with consequences that could affect their lives or those of their children or enterprise are waiting their turn in court for us to be silent about the monopolization of these resources to determine if the plaintiff can be photographed wearing a colander or pirate hat,” he said.

“We forget too often that the courts are a public service with limited resources that must not be abused.”

Narayana, who claimed to belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, went to court after the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) said she couldn’t wear a colander or pirate hat in the photo. She’d shown up to renew her permit at an SAAQ office in March 2014, in full pirate attire, but was denied. Only medical or religious exceptions are allowed to the no-head-covering rule.