Under Toronto’s cover-up order, which the city most recently updated on June 22, all staff at homeless shelters and similar facilities are clustered who come into contact with clients who are suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19 or those who work in areas where there is a suspected or declared outbreak of the virus should wear an N95 respirator.
These masks, which need a good seal around the nose and mouth, cannot fit properly on people with beards.
Employees who are unable to comply with this directive due to faith, religious beliefs, practices or customs have the opportunity to meet with their supervisor/manager to explore other accommodations.
Balpreet Singh of Canada’s Ottawa-based World Sikh Organization (WSO) said this “unfair and unnecessary” policy has resulted in more than 100 contract security guards being fired or reassigned, as their faith requires them not to cut or shave their hair or beard.
“Such moves are often accompanied by a demotion in both grade and salary.  In many cases, people who had been hired as supervisors or managers have been demoted to security guards,” the WSO said in a July 4 announcement.
The group wants the city to review the policy and reinstate affected workers.
“It has wreaked havoc on the lives of these security guards,” said Singh, who serves as the WSO’s spokesman and legal counsel.
“They have an impossible situation.  … The solution is not to shave, but to realize that this rule is not necessary.”
Singh, who last month wrote to Mayor John Tory and all City Council members asking for an “urgent solution” to the issue, said most of the time security guards can do their jobs safely while wearing medical mask, but said there might be “some very rare situations” where that’s not possible, and that’s understandable.
“But firing over 100 guards is not the right way to do it,” he said, adding that those workers “served at the height of the COVID pandemic wearing medical masks and didn’t need to be clean-shaven.”
“The new clean shave rules have been introduced at a time when visitors to the city’s sites are no longer required to be covered.  The clean shave requirement is also not enforced for staff and workers at city facilities,” the WSO said in a statement.
In a statement, City of Toronto spokesman Brad Ross said a possible housing of the N95 mask is a full aerial position respirator, “but City Occupational Health and Safety has advised that it is not suitable for use by security guards due to hearing and vision limitations”.
“Just like City staff, contractors must accommodate their employees at another work site if, for religious reasons, they cannot shave,” he said, noting that the city is “in the process of reviewing the matter and conducting investigations with the contractors”.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called the policy “biased” in a tweet.
“Many of these same individuals served us at the height of the COVID pandemic.  They deserve to be reinstated immediately,” Singh tweeted.
In March 2020, bearded Sikh RCMP officers were banned from performing frontline policing duties as the agency required all officers to be equipped with N95 masks.  They were allowed to return to duty in October 2020 after the WSO advocated on their behalf.