Pastafarian’s fight with ICBC comes to a head

A Surrey man’s prolonged fight with the Insurance Corp. of B.C. for the right to wear religious headgear in his driver’s licence photo has reached a boiling point.

OBi Canuel, 36, was told Friday the public insurer would not permit him to drive past the end of the day unless he submitted to a photograph with a bare head.

“I was content to wait until they changed their mind and, in the meantime, they never hesitated to give me paper interim licences,” he said. “This was never a problem until today.”

Canuel said when he went into an ICBC driver licensing office Friday, staff gave him a one-day permit.

“I have to work and this is inconvenient,” he said. “I don’t imagine that this will get resolved over the weekend, so I will have to spend at least some time unable to drive.”

For Canuel, a Pastafarian minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster who wears a colander on his head in religious observance, ICBC’s demands amount to an attack on his rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“In Canada we have a right to religious expression and those rights weren’t put in place for the familiar status quo religions,” he said. “They were put in place precisely for cases that are unusual.”

Canuel’s fight began nearly a year ago when he tried to have his licence photo taken while wearing headgear in — or so he thought — accordance with ICBC policy, which states: “ICBC affirms your rights to religious expression. You will not be asked to remove any headgear that does not interfere with facial recognition technology as long as it is worn in conjunction with religious practice, or is needed as a result of medical treatment.”