Valerie Conroy is lacing up her boxing gloves as some women take off their tops.
The Sudbury woman is fighting mad that women are allowed to go topless in Ontario,
and she's organizing a group called Citizens Offended by Public Nudity.
"We see this as a sexual issue," said Conroy, who added the group will
collect signatures on a petition that calls for city council to ban women from going
topless at public beaches, parks and streets.
"You can't say in order to be equal we have to be the same as men,"
added Conroy.
Women going topless is the same as men walking around with their genitals exposed,
she adds.
Since men are not allowed to do that so women shouldn't be allowed to go topless,
says Conroy.
During the summer of 1997 there were a few reports of women going topless in
this area, but not many.
In December, 1996 the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that Gwen Jacobs did "nothing
degrading or dehumanizing" when she took a topless stroll through Guelph, Ontario
on a hot summer's day in 1991.
"We believe that was a corrupt decision," said Conroy.
After the court of appeal decision, Sudbury city council passed a bylaw that
requires all swimmers in municipal pools to cover-up.
But the bylaw doesn't apply to sunbathers at beaches.
Women can, and sometimes do, go topless at Sudbury beaches.
Conroy is still organizing the group Citizens Offended by Public Nudity.
It will focus on collecting signatures on petitions and publicizing what other
municipalities have done.
The federal government refused to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to outlaw
topless women, and so far Oshawa is the only municipality in Ontario to pass a bylaw
that charges topless women on city property with trespassing.