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The Port of Montreal requires hard hats for all workers on its property. Three Sikh truck drivers who perform regular pickups at the port have a religious conviction that forbids putting anything on their head except a five-to-six metre length of wrapped cotton.

And last week, in a court decision that was soon publicized throughout India, the Quebec Superior Court sided with the port. Turban-wearing Sikhs can still enter the port, but if they don’t put on a hard hat they have to stay in the cabs of their truck.

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“We’re living in a world of moral panic about danger,” said Julius Grey, lawyer for the three Sikh appellants.

While the last 30 years have seen Canadian Sikhs achieve religious accommodation for the Sikh turban (dastaar) in the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP, on passport photos and in B.C. traffic law, the Quebec Superior Court becomes only the latest body to draw the line when it comes to protective headgear.