By MIKE O'BRIEN
of The Leader-Post
Women who bare their breasts in Regina won't get busted.
Regina police will only arrest them if they're creating a disturbance or behaving
in an erotic manner.
That's the new policy in the wake of Wednesday's court ruling that two Regina
women weren't creating an indecent exhibition when they sunbathed topless in Victoria
Park last summer.
"We aren't going to arrest them unless it's, like the judge said, in front
of kids or in a sexual manner," said Sgt. Jim Mayes of the Regina Police Service
Thursday.
"If it's prostitutes, flaunting their wares, of course we're going to arrest
them."
The police will apply the intent of Judge Eugene Lewchuk's decision, which suggested
topless women minding their own business aren't doing anything illegal or harmful.
The judge said Kathleen Rice and Evangeline Godron were not disturbing anyone
and were not behaving in a sexual manner. Children at the downtown park's playground
likely couldn't see the women, who were seated farther away, he said.
"In the park, we won't arrest them," Mayes said. If someone complains,
the police will ask the woman for her name and then file a complaint report with
the Crown prosecutor's office to review.
"The prosecutor's office is going to have to come up with some guidelines
(for us)," Mayes said, adding that police want to see Lewchuk's ruling in detail.
Crown prosecutor Daryl Rayner said Wednesday charges could still be laid against
women who go topless in public, depending on the circumstances. "Each case
is going to be decided on its own specific facts."
Lewchuk's decision is the latest legal decision paving the way toward legal topless
sunbathing for Canadian women.
For a short period after the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in 1996 that a Guelph
woman was not indecent when she walked down the street topless, some street-corner
prostitutes in that province displayed their breasts to potential customers.