Saskatoon -- Saskatchewan is suffering a serious attack on it's image as a straight-laced, no-nonsense province.
Not only is it home to Canada's latest topless crusader, but it's court system also recently acquitted a trucker charged with using the f-word on the air waves. For a province that has tended to take itself very seriously, these developments indicate a loosening of the laces, so to speak.
Not that Saskatchewan doesn't produce it's share of humour (one of Canada's new rising stars of comedy, Brent Butt, is from this province), it's just that people here are rather intense, no matter what they do. Politics is seen as serious business. Given the dependence on commodities, the economy is serious stuff.
So it came as a surprise to many when the issue of women going topless in public was taken up by a 64-year-old great grandmother. Evangeline Gordon is still battling over the matter in court, even after winning the right to swim and sun topless.
The case goes back to last summer, when Gordon and a friend, Kathleen Rice, were charged with creating an indecent exhibition by baring their breasts in public. One hot, sunny afternoon, they decided to sunbathe topless in a downtown Regina park. An incident that wouldn't have warranted a second glance in many European cities brought the law rushing to defend it's helpless citizens against such a spectacle. Too bad the law doesn't rush to defend helpless citizens against some paunch-endowed men who doff their shirts to sunbathe.
The case finally came to trial earlier this summer. Gordon and Rice were acquitted. The provincial court judge ruled the women didn't violate community standards by sunbathing topless. He accepted a 1996 Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that said women in that province have the right to remove their tops.
However the judge did inject some Saskatchewan sensibility into his ruling. He said the acquittal didn't mean women could just go around taking off their shirts. Anyone who offends community standards, by, for example acting in an erotic manner or going topless in the presence of children, could still be charged, he said.
Apparently this last point was the basis for the most recent complaint against Gordon's toplessness. Shortly after winning her acquittal, Gordon and two other women conducted a much-publicized topless swim at one of Regina's pools. Although the incident caused an uproar -- young men clustered around the pool fence to get a peek -- no one complained about it, and no charges were laid.
Gordon went back to the same pool several times, and became quite a regular topless swimmer. Every time she went swimming, however, parents and staff herded the children into the changing rooms until Gordon left the pool. Just what the children might have seen when Gordon was swimming that they don't already see in the change room is unclear.
During Gordon's last swim, someone complained about her presence, and she was asked to leave the pool. She wouldn't, and she ended up charged with assault. That doesn't mean she hit anyone. It just means police can charge a person with assault if the person refuses to leave a property when asked.
The crusading granny is now awaiting yet another court appearance on the issue. She is vowing to once again plead not guilty.
Public reaction to Gordon's crusade has been mixed, both in opinion and gender balance.
Although women might be expected to be sympathetic, many see Gordon's fight as foolish. They feel she is unfairly portraying Saskatchewan women as frivolous. They say women in this province have much more important matters on their minds and can't be bothered to concern themselves with Gordon's fight.
But even though Gordon's fight isn't particularly popular with women, she is contributing to some important, if subtle change.
Given the likelihood of being ogled and hassled, few women would choose to sunbathe topless. But knowing that the choice is there has a liberating effect. And perhaps if people continue to see topless grannies at the pool, the image of a woman baring her breast won't always be a sexual one. Breastfeeding mothers go to great and ridiculous lengths to avoid disapproving stares when feeding their babies in public. Breasts are still seen in our society as solely sexual property, when every new mom knows they're baby's domain. Eventually, with contributions from women like Gordon, maybe the baby will win the battle of the breast.
A further loosening of the Saskatchewan mindset occurred recently when a Regina trucker was found not guilty of using obscenity on the airwaves.
Last winter Ron Schofield hit a patch of black ice on a southern Saskatchewan highway. He described the incident to another trucker over his CB radio, using a common four-letter word. The RCMP charged him under the Radio Communications Act, which prohibits transmission of obscene language.
A Regina provincial court judge acquitted Schofield, saying that without evidence of the context in which the word was used, he couldn't rule that it was obscene.
Nine other truckers who drove the same stretch of highway as Schofield have also been charged. Five pleaded guilty, and four cases are still to be heard. However, the RCMP are unapologetic for their zealousness. They say many of these cases arise from public complaints.
This makes one wonder who would waste their time listening to truckers on their CB radios. But maybe for some, monitoring the airwaves is serious business.
Deanna Herman is a writer living in Saskatoon.