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Sikh schoolboy in ceremonial dagger bloodfest

A Quebec court has ruled that 12-year-old Sikh schoolboy Gurbaj Singh is allowed to wear his ceremonial dagger to school but advised he gets it sharpened before returning to Ste Catherine Laboure school in LaSalle near Montreal.

The dagger, known as a kirpan, is extremely important to Sikhs, with the most devout always carrying it about their person. However, it is little more than a symbol to demonstrate the wearer's spirituality and Mr Singh's dagger is both small and blunt.

And no, that's not a double entendre.

However, the court advised Mr Singh that if did take the dagger to school, he get it sharpened, just in case. "You take a blade to a fight, you make damn sure you know how to use it son," Judge Redneck told the boy. "If someone comes for you, you could never sort them out with that. Try this flick-knife: faster, sharper, cleaner."

Meanwhile, level-headed and well-informed school governor Sylvie Blais told the press: "For me the kirpan represents violence because it's a knife. Since 9 November and the World Trade Centre we realise that we aren't beyond the reach of such acts."

A hysterical spokesman for the Sikh community countered that claim by asking people to try to understand different cultures instead of condemning any difference as wrong before they've considered the other person's view.

Parents of proper white, Christian children are still refusing to let their kids return to school however. One told us: "My Bill isn't going anywhere near that school until that Sikh boy has that lethal weapon taken off of him. Why can't these people understand our culture and give their kids guns instead?"

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