Turbaned man heckled in club

Ottawa, January 21

A Sikh man was asked to remove his turban by a woman in a Canadian club, according to a media report. The woman also allegedly threatened to “rip” the turban off and heckled the man with racist remarks.

Jaswinder Singh Dhaliwal was playing pool with his friends at Royal Canadian Legion, a Canadian ex-service organisation that includes people who have served in military, when the management approached the group and asked him to remove his “patka” as it was its “policy to remove headgear out of respect for veterans”.

However, religious garments are exempted from this policy. The incident took place on Wednesday at Tignish town in Canada’s Prince Edward Island. A video of the incident shows a woman threatening to “rip” off the head covering in response to being filmed and a patron at the bar making an obscene gesture while saying the garment must be removed because “it is the law”.

Legion president Stephen Gallant later said he would apologise to the aggrieved party as religious garments were exempted from their policy, the report said. — PTI