By LISA GERVAIS/Star Staff Writer Two local women are circulating petitions
asking the federal government to stop their Sudbury-area sisters from going topless
in public.
Carmela Pitman of Sudbury and Joanna Legault of Falconbridge are also encouraging
people to write to Ontario Attorney General Charles Harnick.
A spokesman for Nickel Belt MP Ray Bonin said Thursday that Bonin will present the
petitions to the House of Commons.
Bonin could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The Ontario government has already called on Ottawa to amend the Criminal Code to
clarify when women can bare their breasts in public.
Pitman says she, her husband and their two pre-teenaged children were walking along
the Bell Park walkway on a recent Sunday afternoon when "all of a sudden, this
girl is walking topless with her boyfriend.
"I was shocked." A "furious" Pitman says "we sort of felt
it was in a flirtatious sort of way.
At that point, nothing could stop me, I was prepared to do anything." Pitman
says she doesn't oppose toplessness, per se, but doesn't think it should be allowed
in public places and certainly "not in my face when they're walking anywhere,
I don't have a choice anymore." She'd prefer designated topless areas.
"We have to ban this law on women walking topless in public." Legault
says she couldn't agree more.