February 17, 1998

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. (CP) _ Anti-topless crusaders plan to crash a tops-optional pool party Saturday. Members of the Moral Support Movement plan to lodge complaints at a swim being held to celebrate a woman's first arrest for swimming topless in a public pool. ``I'm hoping it's going to be peaceful,'' said Erika Kubassek, founder of the movement which was formed almost a year ago after Fatima Pereira Henson's swim. ``I'm going to go in and lodge a formal complaint . . . that I have to look at a topless woman. We have rights to stand up for decency.''

Pereira Henson said swimmers will simply be exercising their legal right to go topless, if they choose. Last year, she swam topless to protest the city's tops-on rule in light of an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling which struck down indecency charges against a woman who walked topless in Guelph. After much debate and a second swim by Pereira Henson and another woman, the city dropped its ban on topless swimming. Protesters, she said, have no right to interfere with legal activity.

Councillor Doug Craig knows about the event planned by the Topfree Equal Rights Association, but said ``there's nothing we can do about it.'' Craig said it won't do any good to complain to pool management or city officials. ``We're not allowed to set moral standards,'' he said. (Cambridge Reporter)