TORONTO -- A turban-wearing biker who was told last week he wasn't exempt from the province's helmet law plans to appeal the judge's ruling.

Baljinder Singh Badesha, 39, of Brampton, told Sun Media he plans to file the notice next week, well within the 15-day appeal period.

He said fighting the $110 ticket he received 2 1/2 years ago for riding a motorcycle without a helmet in Brampton isn't just for his own sake anymore.

Nor is it just for Sikhs.

Now, he said, it's a broader fight for religious accommodation.

"Other communities, too, are supporting me," he said, adding he's hopeful his right to practise his faith and ride a motorcycle will be recognized in the appellate court. "We're very confident."

Badesha had been fighting the ticket, with the help of lawyers from the province's Human Rights Commission, on the grounds the helmet law discriminated against him because of his faith.

His defence argued that is not allowed under the country's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

But in Justice James Blacklock's ruling, delivered a week ago today in Brampton, safety won out over Badesha's religious freedom.

"The evidence before me seems to be incontrovertible that helmets markedly reduce deaths and head injuries experienced by motorcycle riders," the judge wrote in his 34-page decision. "These increased dangers would arise every time Mr. Badesha or other similarly situate to him got on a motorcycle.

"It would appear that those risks are probably at a level that we can be certain that there will be members of the Sikh community who will be seriously injured or die because they rode a motorcycle without a helmet."

The londonfree express