{"id":185083,"date":"2018-10-11T03:11:47","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T07:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=185083"},"modified":"2018-10-11T03:11:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T07:11:47","slug":"ontario-government-allow-sikhs-ride-motorcycles-without-helmets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/10\/11\/ontario-government-allow-sikhs-ride-motorcycles-without-helmets\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario government to allow Sikhs to ride motorcycles without helmets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe safety of our roads will always remain a priority,\u201d Premier Doug Ford said in a statement. (File Photo<\/a>: Doug Ford\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2013 Ontario will soon allow turban-wearing Sikhs to ride motorcycles without helmets, joining three other provinces in providing the exemption.<\/p>\n

The Progressive Conservative government said Wednesday that the exemption \u2013 which goes into effect Oct. 18 \u2013 will recognize Sikh motorcycle riders’ civil rights and religious expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety of our roads will always remain a priority,\u201d Premier Doug Ford said in a statement. \u201cBut our government also believes that individuals have personal accountability and responsibility with respect to their own well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Tory legislator Prabmeet Sarkaria tabled a bill to amend the Highway Traffic Act to allow the helmet exemption, but the government said Wednesday it would be bringing about the change through a regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been calling for a helmet exemption for turbaned Ontario Sikh motorcyclists for several years now,\u201d Sarkaria said in a statement. \u201cThe wearing of the turban is an essential part of the Sikh faith and identity, and exemptions for Sikhs have been successfully implemented in other provinces in\u00a0Canada\u00a0and across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turbaned Sikhs are already exempt from wearing motorcycle helmets in Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia.<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom implemented a motorcycle helmet exemption for Sikhs in 1976, the Ontario government noted.<\/p>\n

Ford said the move to allow the helmet exemption came after listening to the Sikh community. He also said it fulfilled a promise made during the spring election campaign.<\/p>\n

The Sikh Motorcycle Club of Ontario welcomed the government’s announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoon we will have a right to ride with our pride,\u201d it said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n

Ontario’s previous Liberal government had resisted calls for the exemption, saying that relevant academic research and legal decisions supported not granting it to Sikh motorcycle riders because it would pose a road safety risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Ontario will soon allow turban-wearing Sikhs to ride motorcycles without helmets, joining three other provinces in providing the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":180912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-shawn-jeffords","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}