No nudes is good news

Vanier business group leads rally to keep breasts under wraps

Dave Chan, The Ottawa Citizen / About 150 people marched down Montreal Road in a rally to protest against topless women in public.

Bare breasts offend and nudity isn't good for business.

Those were the messages that drew about 150 people to walk through the streets of Vanier last night -- many getting soaked to the skin in the process.

Maybe it was the downpour that foiled any bare-breasted opposition; all tops were on.

The rally was organized by the Vanier business community, which wants to send its no-nude-in-public message to provincial and federal governments.

CÄcile Couture, president of the Vanier Business Improvement Association, expected at least 1,700 signatures on petitions, which are to be sent to Justice Minister Anne McLellan and Attorney General Charles Harnick.

Mrs. Couture said members of community and business groups from other areas such as Rockland, Kanata, Ottawa and Embrun want to add their names to the petitions.

For many who braved the rain last night, female toplessness -- which Ottawa City Council now allows on city beaches -- is bad for the image of Vanier.

Paul Lalonde, 56, who has been practising law for 30 years on Montreal Road, said: "Vanier has beautified very much over the past 10 years and it's striving to better its image. This type of exhibitionism can't be tolerated. It runs contrary to all of the efforts and money involved to change the character of the city."

"First thing they're allowed to show their breasts; next thing you know they'll show their butts because that's what's going to happen," said Claire Pilon, 41. "It's going to be pathetic if they don't stop it now."

Vanier councillor Sylvain Boyer walked with the anti-topless protesters from Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes Church on Montreal Road to the Centre francophone at Montreal Road and Marier Avenue.

He said he came to support those in the city who believe "Canadian culture is not ready to have ladies bare their breasts in public.

"In their own back yard, in their own private house, there's no problem. They were all saying that in public places, not even on the beaches or at poolside, they're not ready for that."

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled this year that it was not a criminal act for women to go topless in public. Since then, incidents in Vanier and elsewhere have brought the topic to the fore.

In one, Joanne Gowan, 31, was charged with committing an indecent act after a woman stood barebreasted on Montreal Road in Vanier.

For many at the rally -- such as Suzanne Sumner, 39, who was born and raised in Vanier -- saying no to toplessness is all about showing respect for the people who live in the community and raise their children there. "My own daughter is five years old. I'm always trying to raise her with good morals."

Women going topless "rob young girls here of their innocence," Ms. Sumner said. "I'm going to fight with every strength that I have to keep (Vanier) as nice as it was when I was growing up."