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Montreal Gazette (opinion) - Cultural ignorance explains why a mace is OK but a kirpan isn't

Published: 17 February 2011

(Op-ed by Manjit Singh, director of the chaplaincy service and lecturer in Sikh studies at the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University):

"In Quebec, the new buzzword is interculturalism, meaning facilitating the settlement of new immigrants. The Quebec government has declared that interculturalism has four key elements: 'Quebec is an open society, a democratic society, a society of French language and a pluralist society.'

The decision of the National Assembly not to allow entry to kirpan-wearing baptized Sikhs negates three of the four elements of interculturalism."

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