When the Quebec public insurance board refused permission for a 'Pastafarian' to wear a Johnny Depp / Captain Jack Sparrow type hat or a pasta strainer on her drivers licence photo, she immediately followed the logical course of action. She hired a civil-rights lawyer and sued the SAAQ.
The rather bizarre case came to light when the Montreal Gazette wanted to highlight what the supposedly frugal Liberal government had spent over $16,000 for. The answer? A report on whether Pastafarianism was a real religion (spoiler - it's not - like Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster it's a satirical take on religion as a whole).
Pastafarian and CFSM was founded (unsuprisingly) in the USA. It was a backlash against schools that were allowed to teach creationism as part of the syllabus. Current advocates claim to believe in holy meatballs and worship pirates.
Montreal resident Isabelle Narayana took issue with the current system of allowing muslims and other religions to wear headcoverings for their photos so tried to get her behatted image on a licence. When the clerk refused her request, she made a second attempt that was refused by the SAAQ (The Quebec public insurance board). That's when she turned to Julius Grey, a prominent civil-rights lawyer.
Worried that the province might be impinging on a potential voter's religious expression, the Justice Minister arranged for the Transport Department to find someone learned enough to investigate the matter. Luckily enough, Louis Rousseau from Quebec University was available and for just (!) $16.140 he was able to write a report, saving anyone the effort of a quick google search.
It seems, however that the report was a waste of money - a judge had already rejected Narayana's request - when she got to court (also requesting the option of wearing a pasta strainer on her head in her photo) the judge had even reprimanded the lawyers for wasting the court's time with such a frivolous matter.
