School district to change policy on daggers

A recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada means School District No. 53 will be reviewing - and maybe rewriting - their policy on weapons, intimidation and violence.

"We’ll be getting advice on how best to handle this," said superintendent Vern Berg said Friday, after finding out about the ruling.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that school board policies can not forbid Sikh students from wearing kirpans, or ceremonial daggers, to school, after a Montreal school board tried to prevent the practice.

Jarnail Singh Gill, president of the Sikh temple in Oliver, is pleased with the ruling, and he confirmed that students in Oliver wear the kirpans to school.

The kirpan is a dagger, typically made of iron, and it can range in size. The one Gill wears is about four inches long, and curves at the end. It’s not very sharp, and he wears it in a sleeve attached to his waist.

Wearing the dagger is not optional, Gill said.

"This is part of five concepts you should have," he said, explaining the five khalsas, or dress rituals of their faith. "A proper Baptized Sikh should wear a kirpan, and must have uncut hair. Long underwear – a special type … and a pure iron bracelet." The fifth symbol is a small comb.

Children wear smaller versions of the dagger, he said, and only graduate to the larger sized kirpan when the adults in the community judge him or her to be ready.

"There’s kids that put it on at seven, eight years old, but we also take responsibility for it," Gill said, pointing out if they think the child can not understand the proper use of the kirpan they don’t allow the child to wear it. "If we feel confident he can keep it as a symbol, not as a weapon, then they wear a proper kirpan."

Younger students might wear a small version, attached to a necklace. It measures about 1.5 inches in total, and is not sharp. Gill insists that a student wearing a kirpan of any size knows the purpose and will not abuse it.

"It’s not a weapon. So far in Canadian history it’s never been used as a weapon," he said. "It is for your own protection, not to kill somebody or scare somebody. Parents train them not to fight."

Traditionally, a Sikh should never use the kirpan in anger, or for a malicious attack. Sikh’s training is firm: The kirpan may be used in self-defense, or to protect a person in need, but never as a weapon.

But some local parents are worried that the dagger might be misused. Deanne Gray is a mother of two students who attend Southern Okanagan Secondary School, and she is adamant students should not be allowed to wear the kirpans.

"I would say no student should carry weapons to school regardless of ethnicity. Anything you can hurt somebody with is a weapon," she said, adding she isn’t trying to deny religious freedom. Everyone should be allowed to have their beliefs.

"You can’t hurt somebody with beliefs," she said.

Berg said neither he nor the principals in the district were aware the students were wearing kirpans, and as it currently stands the board’s policy would forbid it.

"They are not worn at the schools, not to our knowledge, and it has never surfaced as an issue," he said. The district has a policy on weapons, violence and intimidation, and Berg said under the existing policy students can’t possess any instrument, including instruments not normally intended for violence.

"That would cover that (kirpans)," he said. Any small knife, including pocket-knives, are forbidden.

"Basically the board wants to have a secure environment for our students that would be safe from violence and intimidation."

But the Supreme Court ruled that kirpans must be allowed, meaning the board will take another look. Berg said the advice they will be seeking will include legal advice, and the board would be visiting the issue in an upcoming meeting.

Gill said it’s important the community understand the practice.

"This is a multi-cultural country and we should respect the Constitution of Canada, but we should have the rights to practice our own culture and keep the practices the elders give us – as long as they don’t hurt somebody else."

Chronicle welcomes Laurena Weninger as new editor

Taped above the desk of my home office is a yellowed news clipping titled "Sparky the Squirrel Strikes Again."

This particular news clip is about a series of fires that have occurred at the base of a power pole in Osoyoos. According to this brief, a couple of times a year, there is a small brush fire at the base of this particular power pole. Word from the fire chief is the flames are caused when a squirrel, cruising along the main transmission line, suddenly - and rather mysteriously - bursts into flames, and falls.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not amused at the squirrel’s spontaneous combustion. The news clip is not above my desk because I like to think about the sufferings of small animals. Rather, it’s above my desk as a reminder to be prepared: Life doesn’t always unfold as planned.

Last week was one of those times.

On Monday, February 27, I began the process of trading in all my hats for a new hat, when I officially started my new position as news editor at the Oliver Chronicle.

I am no stranger to the community, and no stranger to the news business. Those of you who follow local news may recognize my name, as the Oliver-Osoyoos correspondent for the Penticton Herald. Those of you who drink coffee may recognize my face from behind the counter at the local cappuccino bar: the Cock and Bull, where I worked every Friday and Saturday. And, last but not least, those of you who have children in the community might recognize me as the mom of my two sons, aged eight years and three years old. (That hat, I’m not trading in.) You might have also seen me on the ball field – second base is my second home from April through June – on the volleyball court, or just out power-walking.

I moved to the Wine Capital of Canada in 2000, from Kelowna, where I grew up. A small-town girl at heart, Oliver is exactly the place I want to raise my children. It is a warm and welcoming community, and I believe I can count on my neighbours to take an investment in their future.

It is with much excitement that I am putting on my new hat, and receiving the torch from the former news editor, Leslie Plaskett. I hope I can continue to grow with the paper to serve the needs of the community, and I hope you will all feel welcome to give me feedback.

This recent development is most definitely a positive one – even though I will miss working with the Herald and with the coffee-shop crowd – but it got me thinking again about Sparky. Granted, when life throws me curves, especially the good ones, I generally don’t burst into flames. (Well, okay, sometimes I do – but I generally try not to let my reaction be quite that dramatic.)

But there are moments when I can identify with one of those squirrels. Times when I will be merrily skipping along my power line, my eyes focussed on the next pole, when something unexpected happens.

I’m learning to enjoy it.

Fighting with windmills

There are months when Pierre Hebting feels like Sancho Panza. Like the fictional sidekick of Miguel de Cervantes’ hero, Don Quixote, Hebting is currently engaged in fighting windmills.

He has a problem with the 35 wind machines in operation on Mission Hill Winery’s rolling vineyards, located in various sections along Black Sage Road. One of them is just 650 feet from his front door.

However, unlike the 16^th century wind-driven wooden windmills of Quixote’s time, wind machines today are huge metallic towers that range 30 to 40 feet in height with a propeller span measuring 12 feet for the smaller versions, and up to 19-feet-four-inches for the larger units.

When in operation overnight, their propane, diesel, gas or electric-powered Ford 416 Industrial, Chevy 454 or Cummins engines can reach 145-horsepower capability and when the blades rotate they do so with a rumble akin to a hovering helicopter.

They are designed to work during temperature inversions, by drawing down warm air above the inversion and mixing it with colder air nearer the ground, thereby raising the temperature a few crucial degrees near the vines.

Used for a number of years by cherry orchardists to ward off frost damage to their trees in the spring, wind machines are appearing in vineyards, where they are used to protect buds from the threat of frost in the spring and safeguard the grape leaves in the fall while they are still shooting sugar to the berries.

But if their purpose is to protect both buds and leaves from frost damage, Hebting wonders why these machines are running in Mission Hill’s vineyards in the winter when the leaves have fallen, the grapes have been picked and the vines are dormant.

His last recorded instances of wind machine noise were the night of February 16-17 when all the machines were running, and the night of February 17-18 when just the one in front of his house was in operation.

Kenn Oldfield, general manager at Tinhorn Creek Vineyards, also said he does not understand the logic behind running the machines in the winter. He operates his two wind machines in his Diamondback Vineyard on Black Sage Road in the spring and fall, but said they are of little use now.

Said Hebting, "The problem started when Mission Hill planted a crop in the field beside the (Southern Plus) feedlot, which is a frost pocket. Then they put 17 windmills in one area; now we have 35 windmills operating at night in the winter between here and the hayfield across from the (Inkameep) Reserve."

He contends that operating those machines during an Arctic freeze is counterproductive, because generally a winter rush of cold air is too deep to permit an inversion. And the turning of the propellers during this period creates a wind that could desiccate the vines.

A definitive scientific answer on the subject is still lacking, says a researcher at the Pacific Agri Food Research Centre in Summerland. The practice is in use at one winery in Ontario’s Niagara region, but no such studies have been done in this area.

Hebting believes Mission Hill is basing their practice on the Ontario model, a custom of dubious merit here since the Oliver area does not have the moderating influences of a large body of water to create the necessary temperature inversions in the winter.

After three years of fruitless discussion with the Mission Hill people about their methods, he has taken his fight to the Farm Industry Review Board (FIRB).

"We have to go through the process but it has to be done within 60 days. There is a step-by-step procedure to follow. The next procedure is a conference call with the two parties—Mission Hill Winery and me. Depending on the outcome of that call, hearings would be organized with the 20-member FIRB Board."

And he is looking for co-signors on a petition —people who are also affected by these wind machines and are willing to come forward—that he will take to the Board. And, he said, he would cover any costs arising out of this matter.

Hebting is a soft-spoken grape grower himself whose agricultural roots go back for generations in his birthplace of Alsace, France. Readily acknowledging a wind machine’s rightful place in agriculture, he wants regulations established regarding its seasonal use, before eventual public pressure bans them outright in developed areas.

"I’m really concerned for the well being of farming. I do not want this to become as contentious as bird cannons and I do not want to lose the use of these machines, but sooner or later some (government official) is going to say that the operation of wind machines is out of control and ban them. If that happens, a lot of farmers are going to lose their spring crops."

According to Roza Aylwin, planning technician at the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen (RDOS) office in Penticton, the only by-law governing wind machines is a height restriction in developed areas.

Area C director, Allan Patton, agreed, adding there are currently no noise by-laws in the regional district, but even if there were, farmland is under provincial jurisdiction and would be exempt from municipal regulations.

Therefore, he doesn’t see the RDOS getting involved in the situation in that sense; what could happen, however, is the Ministry of Agriculture could step in and bring in regulations of its own regarding the use of wind machines, if there were increasing calls for regulations against the misuse of these units.

Agricultural Minister Pat Bell said he was not aware of this particular issue, but promised to look into the matter this week.

Don Cachola, at Okanagan Wind Machine Company, said he gives his customers instructions when they purchase a model from him.

"There are things they have to look at besides the forecast. They have to watch the dewpoint because it is usually a pretty good indication of what the inversion is going to be that night."

He also advises users map the property before planting a vineyard or purchasing a machine, and that means finding out where the frost pockets are and noting how the cold air flows through the property.

Efforts to reach Mike Molloy, vineyard operations manager at Mission Hill Winery (named in the petition) were unsuccessful.

Seeing daggers

The concern that observant Sikh youth will be introducing weapons into our school system by wearing a ceremonial kirpan is not based on facts. There is simply no history of a kirpan being used as a weapon in Canadian schools. This isn’t surprising. After all, those who conform to the traditions do so out of deeply held religious belief and to use a kirpan in this way would be offensive to that faith.

To quote the Supreme Court of Canada, "… there are many objects in schools that could be used to commit violent acts and that are much more easily obtained by students, such as scissors, pencils and baseball bats. The evidence also reveals that not a single violent incident related to the presence of kirpans in schools has been reported. Although it is not necessary to wait for harm to be done before acting, the existence of concerns relating to safety must be unequivocally established for the infringement of a constitutional right to be justified."

All things in life are a balance and that balance must be found between our desire for safety of our institutions and the guarantees of our freedom of worship. The Supreme Court of Canada has found that reasonable balance.

The concerns about violence and the Sikh community are not completely conjectural. We are all aware of the endemic violence among drug gangs in the lower Mainland and the number of times a Sikh name appears in the news reports of victims or those charged. This violence remains a grave concern for both the police and the great majority of the Sikh community but has absolutely nothing to do with observant Sikhs carrying kirpans. It has to do with non-practising thugs carrying firearms. It would make as much sense to ban rosary beads out of fear that they would be used to strangle people based on the observation that most Mafioso come from a Catholic background.

Let’s focus on the real threats to our community’s peace, order and good government.