Judge Touts Helmet Law
A Judge in Ontario ruled that motorcycle helmet laws trump religious freedom. Mr. Badesha, 
a practicing Sikh, and the human rights commission maintain the helmet law discriminates against Sikhs because their religion obliges them to cover their long hair with nothing more than a turban.
Part of the lawsuit involved testing whether the Turbans maintain themselves at high rates of speed. The court was told earlier that Mr. Badesha raced a motorcycle around an Ontario speedway to test whether turbans unravel at high speeds.
The bizarre image of Mr. Badesha's experiment last year -- conducted under the auspices of the Ontario Human Rights Commission -- was evoked during his constitutional challenge to a law that forces motorcycle riders to wear a helmet.
Judge Blacklock was told that, in order to disprove a Crown theory that turbans unravel at high speed and cause accidents, Mr. Badesha drove around Cayuga Speedway at 110 kilometres an hour.
His turban held fast.
Nonetheless, the Turban was trumped by the Helmet in the name of public safety.
