July 30, 1997
LET PUBLIC SPEAK OUT, HASKETT PROPOSES
SHE SAYS LONDONERS DESERVE A CHANCE TO AIR THEIR VIEWS AT A PUBLIC
MEETING.
By Greg Van Moorsel
Free Press Reporter
Bare breasts will be back in the spotlight at London city hall today as Mayor
Dianne Haskett pushes for a public sounding on the smouldering topless issue.
Haskett says she'll be asking city council's board of control to address
Londoners' concerns "at the very least" with a hearing to let them air
their views.
BACKS BAN:
She also wants a legal opinion on the city's options to control public toplessness
and says she favors banning it.
"I would vote for it," she said, noting while some Londoners are
indifferent to women going topless in public, many believe there should be controls
on it.
"My own feeling is that a person's right to any particular thing should
not go as far as to cause serious offence to other people," said Haskett, noting
she's received letters and calls.
"Some of the people who have phoned us have been beside themselves,"
the mayor said.
The issue has been steaming in Ontario municipalities all summer following
a court ruling allowing women to go topless in public. That's caused sporadic outbreaks
of toplessness and left many communities debating how to deal with it, especially
at beaches and pools.
On board of control's agenda today is one provincial politician's answer
-- a bid to let municipalities impose dress codes.
Tory backbencher Jim Brown of Scarborough West has introduced a private member's
bill to effectively let communities ban or restrict public breast-baring by passing
dress-code bylaws.
Offenders could be ticketed and fined, the MPP said, noting it would be up
to municipalities to decide where the codes apply.
"They're going to have trouble at private back yards," said Brown.
He suggested a $500 fine would be appropriate for violating such restrictions in
public.
The bill, introduced in June, would allow bylaws requiring compliance with
"certain reasonable standards of dress" on public property in municipalities,
with fines of up to $5,000.
Brown said the bill came out of family-values discussions in the Tory caucus
and has received legal vetting, including by fellow Tory MPP Bob Wood -- a lawyer
-- of London South.
Haskett said London hasn't had many incidents of women going topless, "but
those that have occurred have caused great consternation" to some.