August 06, 1997
More to bare breast than meets the eye
DON YOUNG - Guest columnist
I, like the vast majority of other Ontarians, write as one who has never taken time
from a busy work schedule to personally "wade into the public waters"
of a political and public morality issue. The wrongness of this public nudity issue,
however the total absurdity of it, has gotten to me. I cannot remain silent. Totally
absurd it is and if you will allow me a few lines, one Christian leader will outline
to the public the "6 Great Absurdities of this Public Nudity Issue."
1. This is about women's rights. No, it's not. It is all about trampling
on the rights of the majority of others. So now, my three children, my wife and
I have to be exposed to some woman taking her top off in a public swimming pool
- what up until one month ago was criminal "exposure" - and can do nothing
about this offense? Premier Mike Harris was exactly correct in stating that this
issue is not about someone's private rights at all, it is blatant-in-your-face public
nudity pushed on others.
2. This is really about male and female equality. It is on equal par,
with per say, a man taking off his shirt to do yard work or while swimming on a
hot day. Yes, just as three strippers sitting brazenly topless outside on a main
street in downtown Toronto, is really about male and female equality.
3. A lady's breasts have no more sexuality than a man's. The judging
panel for the Indy 500 car race didn't buy that one. Last summer, they ruled against
young ladies with thread-bare tops being allowed near the pit stop sections of the
racetrack, having been placed there by competing crews to distract other drivers.
4. The majority of Ontarians have to sit back and accept the inevitable.
Nothing can be done about it for this is the law. The majority of Ontarians
do not have to sit back on this public morality issue. If the law is wrong then
change it, or make new laws! If the current Charter of Rights for Canada is interpreted
on the clause of male and female equality that there is no physiological "difference"
in male and female sexes, then we have a big problem. To try to hold on to such
a position is outright intellectual idiocy and will make Canada look so before the
nations. If a judge, perhaps with a personal agenda, passes precedents and interpretations
of the law that flagrantly go against the will of society, then neither should that
judge's judgement be against examination.
5. History and the precedent of public decency laws are suddenly meaningless
and without worth. One fine day in Ontario, the spring of 1997, we just woke
up to reality and all that went before really means nothing? Make no mistake about
it, the history of western society shows progress for century after century is establishing
public standards of human decency toward one another. History is not all worthless,
stupid or suddenly void of value. The public decency laws against sexual exposure
are just fine the way they are, thank you!
6. But here is the real issue, likely the victory hoped for by the
sexual agenda movement after all the dust has finally settled in this battle: Even
if public nudity is disallowed on the streets, it will be okay for toplessness on
the beaches and select swimming pools of Ontario. A partial victory in the banning
of public nudity is no victory in reality. Why? Because the doors will be opened
for lobbying groups and those of this extremist fringe to constantly agitate for
more and more. No, it is not okay, but a public disgrace for nudity in the streets
and it is not okay to have this pushed upon us for select public swimming areas.
Oh, make no mistake about it, if we let public toplessness and nudity to
go on in Canada, this will be a disgrace to our nation. This is not progress, it
is a mistake. Let's get rid of this brainless direction we are headed and say 'No'
to the absurdity of it.
Reverend Don Young is a Mississauga resident and a pastor at the Halton Gospel
Temple of Pentecostal Assemblies in Georgetown.