A Sikh personal trainer has accused a Canadian gym of racism after being confronted by a staff member and told to leave because of his religious kirpan dagger.
Gurpartap Singh Khalsa, who makes fitness content on TikTok, filmed himself objecting to being kicked out of the Windsor Dougall GoodLife Fitness on July 15 and shared the video with the caption “racially singled out by GoodLife employee”.
In the video Khalsa has a turban on, and can be seen wearing the ceremonial dagger in a sheath attached to a belt worn diagonally across his chest.
@dreambodygurp I WAS TARGETED THIS GIRL SAID SHE IS SCARED BECAUSE I AM CARRYING A KNIFE (KIRPAN) ASKED ME TO LEAVE BUT SHE LET ME IN KNOWING I HAD IT ON…THIS IS GOOD LIFE WINDSOR DOUGLAS @GoodLife Fitness UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR #tiktok #fyp #motivation #waheguru #viral ♬ original sound – Gurpartap Singh Khalsa
“You’re kicking me out of the gym right now because you are scared that I’m going to take my religious symbol, you’re scared that I’m going to take this religious symbol and kill somebody?” he asked the female employee.
The staff member said she was asking him to leave because a member had raised concerns about him carrying a blade on the premises.
“What I’m saying is you have a weapon on your person, a member has brought it to my attention, and for the safety of me and everybody else in the gym, I’m asking you to leave,” she replied.
“We’re a private gym, we’re allowed to deny access,” she told him after he said he didn’t understand.
In a second TikTok video titled “racially profiled at GoodLife Fitness Dougall location”, Khalsa stood in front of the camera shirtless while again wearing a turban and his kirpan and he was “heartbroken” by the incident.
“I purchased a day pass, this girl working at the front fully saw the way I looked, gave me access. I paid for the day pass. As I was working out, she came up to me, saying you have to leave the gym now because you were wearing a knife,” he said.
“What were you doing at the beginning? Did you not see this ‘knife’ that I was wearing? Then I tried to explain to her under the human rights code I am legally allowed to carry this. She refused, she went on to say ‘why can’t I carry a gun?’ Guns are illegal, I am legal to wear this.
“Then she said ‘if you don’t leave I will call the police’, I said ‘call the police’, I waited there, the police didn’t show up, so I just left.
“I was racially profiled here, guys, and it’s very, very sad. GoodLife, out of all places, I would never expect that, man. I was actually heartbroken. I look at my face in that video, I couldn’t believe what was happening, man.”
GoodLife Fitness has a DEI statement on its website saying: “At GoodLife, we’re committed to fostering a community where everybody – and every BODY – feels welcome. For us, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are non-negotiable.”
The incident comes amid global debate about the dangers of Sikh religious daggers following the murder of Henry Nowak in the UK with a ceremonial blade similar to a kirpan called a shastar.
Header image: Left, right, Gurpartap Singh Khalsa (TikTok).
The post Sikh accuses gym of racism after being kicked out for wearing religious knife first appeared on The Noticer.
The NoticerRead More
T1
