27 August 2005
CP to Talk with Sikh Drivers
Toronto - Canadian Pacific Railway plans to negotiate with Sikh truck drivers to avoid a
potential legal challenge over a controversial hard-hat rule that violates the group's religious requirement to wear
turbans.
"As far as we know, the directive of the enforcement came from CPR Calgary (company headquarters). The management in Ontario has
been sensitive to these Sikh drivers and the issues surrounding the compatibility of wearing hard hats and turbans," the truck
drivers' lawyer, Axy Leighl, said in an interview yesterday.
"Obviously, there's a different political atmosphere in Alberta, where there have been different litigations over turbans."
CP Rail spokesperson Paul Thurston would not comment on whether the instruction to step up enforcement of an old safety code indeed
came from Calgary. But he said it is a "normal cycle of business to review our operation and take action if something is not up
to standard."
About 500 Sikh drivers, contracted by various companies to unload and pick up containers, have been up in arms after they were banned
from local CP Rail terminals two weeks ago. An 1 Aug 2005 memo said CP would enforce a rule requiring drivers to wear
hard hats.
Following a job stoppage earlier this week, the company has temporarily suspended its enforcement of the rule until a resolution is
reached.
An attempt by some of the drivers to file a human rights complaint on the issue has been put on hold, and a lawyer for CP confirmed
that negotiations are expected to begin in early September.
The turban dispute has created an uproar in Canada's 450,000-strong Sikh community, dominating ethnic media and radio
talk shows."Sikhs have lived in this country for 108 years and the tradition (of turbans) has continued to bring us to
loggerheads again and again," lamented Sher Singh, a prominent Sikh leader and lawyer.
"For years, these drivers had come to work with their turbans... This is clearly not a safety issue."
Another Sikh lawyer, Satwinder Gosal, said wearing a turban is a central tenet of the faith for Sikh men, representing their commitment
to serve others and uphold equal rights for all.
A British Columbia judge's recent decision indicated the court's understanding of the Sikh tradition and its protection under the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Gosal said. That province's laws now exempt turban-wearing Sikhs from wearing helmets
on motorcycles.
"While the courts generally get it right, senior bureaucrats and business executives clearly don't," Gosal said. "One
wonders whether in the mindset of these mandarins, zero tolerance of turbans really means zero consideration of human rights. Surely
they have an obligation to educate themselves about the law and about religious traditions that are impacted by their policies."
For Harvinder Dhaliwal, a truck driver for 12 years and president of the Professional Truck Owners and Operators of Ontario, personal
safety is always a priority for his members. He hopes to see negotiations resolve the dispute. To him, safety seems a moot point.
"There are only containers at the rail yards," Dhaliwal said.
"It doesn't matter how much protection you get from the hard hats. When a container falls, you are dead."
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