It's already the talk at municipal pools around Ottawa. And today in a City Hall
meeting room, beneath the gaze of a queen who defined Victorian standards of decency,
a committee will decide if the age has arrived to allow women to swim topless.
All eyes will be on Ottawa as councillors deal with an issue that has left municipalities
across Ontario fearful of incurring the wrath of one community segment or another.
"Everybody has been calling us about this," says community services commissioner
Janette Foo, whose proposal to explicitly permit topless swimming at city pools
appears to be a provincial first.
The draft policy, if approved by the community services committee today and full
council next week, would direct lifeguards not to intervene if a woman drops her
bikini top. If another swimmer complains, city staff would ask -- but not order
-- the woman to cover her chest.
Ms. Foo has said police would be called to handle any serious dispute.
Several councillors, including committee chair Diane Deans, have said they would
support the staff plan.
But one committee member, Coun. Allan Higdon, condemns the proposal as an affront
to "the standards of the community" and one that gives women a green light
to "revel in exhibitionism.
"It's not a question of morality, it's a question of bad taste. We've come
a long way from women wearing whale-bone skirts, but there has to be a middle ground."
"If men were bathing bottomless, we'd all be offended," he said.
The debate over topless swimming is the natural fallout of December's ruling by
the Ontario Court of Appeal that overturned a 1991 indecency conviction against
Gwen Jacob. The Guelph woman had been fined for strolling topless down a city street
on a hot summer day, an act of defiance that led to a breast-liberation protest
on Parliament Hill and a series of court appeals.
Judges in the Jacob case ruled that because the woman had not gone topless for "commercial"
or "sexual" reasons, no laws were broken.
The next day, Karen Lalonde, manager of an Ottawa apartment building, collected
rent cheques and performed her other duties bare-breasted.
Municipal officials have said the Jacob decision doesn't automatically apply to
civic pools -- enclosed spaces where adults and children frequently cross paths
-- and many cities are scrambling to come up with their own rules on topless swimming.
But Ms. Foo and other municipal policymakers seeking further judicial guidance on
the issue were left high and dry last week when a Cambridge court tossed out a trespassing
charge against a woman who had taken a topless dip in a municipal pool.
The case was dropped by prosecutors because the charge was filed without recording
the street address of the community centre where the infraction occurred -- an outcome
that did nothing to clarify the real issue.
In Hamilton, where another woman sparked controversy by taking several topless swims,
city officials have posted signs insisting that women wear full bathing suits.
Aquatics staff from local municipalities are to meet June 17 to review how they
would deal with the issue.
A spokesperson with Gloucester says the city has no written policy, but would generally
eject a woman from a pool if she refuses to wear her entire bathing suit.
Nepean's manager of aquatics, Judy Bates, says the city has no formal policy, but
that her approach would be roughly the same as Ms. Foo's proposal.
One of the options to be considered by Ottawa councillors is a regular time set
aside for women who want to swim topless, something Mr. Higdon says he would support.
But Donald Harris, director of the Champagne Bath on King Edward Street, says if women are determined to have equal treatment under the law, exclusive pool times could be interpreted as "discriminating."