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And what of the government’s and its supporters’ arguments? To whatever extent that helmetless Sikh motorcyclists do “not harm others,” per Ernst, surely that’s true of helmetless non-Sikh motorcyclists as well. Mason, the Transportation Minister, seemed to dismiss the other obvious concern — the potential for increased health-care costs — by saying not many people would avail themselves of this new right.

So far as I know, no Canadian Sikh has ever claimed a religious obligation to ride a motorcycle

Well, that’s great: a freedom bestowed by government to a select few, to do something demonstrably inessential, that the government hopes they won’t actually do. These are not the hallmarks of a Great Day for Human Rights, I’m afraid. But Ontario’s Sikhs on two wheels are already redoubling their demands for similar treatment, calling for an end to “unfounded subjugation” and accusing Premier Kathleen Wynne of “deny(ing) the Sikhs this basic right.”

That is some remarkable language coming from a group of people who know quite a bit about actual subjugation. And it would sure be a better look if they argued everyone should be treated the same — which is exactly the situation they’re in now and a very worthy goal, even if it might confine some of us to the indignity of four-wheeled transport.

Like I say, this is hardly the end of the world. But the last thing this country needs right now is to further muddy the waters on religious freedom. The Supreme Court recently issued a baffling ruling that argued a British Columbia First Nation’s religious freedom wouldn’t be violated by building a ski resort on sacred lands. In the next few weeks, in the matter of Trinity Western University’s proposed law school, it could well deliver a stinging blow against religious education. An Ontario judge allowed two First Nations parents to pursue various brands of non-Indigenous quackery instead of chemotherapy, ostensibly to uphold their right to access Indigenous medicine — a right that no one was even questioning. To listen to some of the rhetoric over the Liberals’ summer jobs program fiasco, you would think a non-existent Charter right to abortion had officially trumped the very-existent Charter right not to be discriminated against by the government on grounds of religion.

Elevating motorcycle riding, of all bloody things, to a “basic right” can only make us more collectively addled.

• Email: cselley@nationalpost.com | Twitter: cselley