Surrey, September 25, 2020: Sikh officers serving with Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have been removed from frontline duties and consigned to desk duty for the last six months due to issue with masks not fitting properly on their beards.
RCMP says that the N100 masks are not fully fixed due to facial hair.
The World Sikh Organization (WSO), Canada, has criticized the decision of RCMP to remove bearded Sikh police officers from frontline policing duty from March 31, 2020 calling it "inappropriate and discriminatory" and calling for an immediate end to discrimination.
WSO President Tejinder Singh Sidhu has said that RCMP is the only police force in Canada that has removed bearded Sikh officers from the front line while Sikh officers are serving in other police forces in Canada.
"Why is it that the RCMP needs more PPE protection than any other Canadian police force or even medical frontline personnel?" asked Sidhu.
He said the affected Sikh officials had contacted WSO in April 2020 and WSO had written to Federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucky in early June requesting that they resolve the situation.
WSO had also requested Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand and Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Navdeep Bains to resolve the situation but no response was received from the ministers' offices.
On July 1, RCMP's Chief Human Resources Officer Gayle Johnson confirmed to WSO that bearded Sikh officers were on desk duty. He had said that these duties have been imposed temporarily due to Covid-19.