More than one hundred Sikh security guards in Toronto have been fired from their jobs or demoted due to a humiliating facial hair policy.
Staff at homeless shelters and other congregate settings have been urged to clean-shave (cut their beard) in order to ensure N95 masks fit properly due to a policy in Toronto.
The new policy rule has put the Sikh workers in an impossible situation as facial hair is important in their faith. Most of the affected were hired through city contracts with third-party companies.
The World Sikh Organization (WSO) has called the police completely unreasonable and has called for a quick solution. WSO president Tehinder Singh Sidhu has said that the Sikh police officers and other frontline care workers had worked during the pandemic without being required to compromise their faith.
GardaWorld, a company with city contracts, has said that different other opportunities were offered to the affected until the change of rules.
Toronto’s mayor has put the blame on third-party companies who failed to accommodate their workers as per policy.
