If women want to go topless in Metro's public parks or swimming pools, there's not much anyone can do to stop them.

But parks commissioners in the six Metro municipalities are going to try to get people to cover up using gentle persuasion rather than legal force.

Indeed, bureaucrats throughout the Greater Toronto Area and around the province are grappling with the situation since an Ontario appeals court decision last December made it no longer a criminal offence for a woman to appear topless in public.

``The legal advice we've got is that if anyone wants to go topless, there's not much we can do,'' says East York parks and recreation commissioner Claire Tucker-Reid.

``We don't have back-up from the courts (to bar topless women) but we want to try and make public pools and parks congenial for everyone. We don't want to offend people.''

All parks commissioners in Metro will meet next Friday to draft a uniform policy on what to do if a woman appears topless at a public facility and people there object.

While North York parks officials will take part in the review, Mayor Mel Lastman won't comment on the issue.

``I think women who do it (go topless in public) are crazy. It's wrong, it's bad and they're looking for trouble,'' he told The Star's Leslie Ferenc.

Lastman said he won't raise the issue at city council. ``I'm not going to do anything about it. If someone does it, it's their business.''

Scarborough has no plans to bar topless women at its municipal pools or public beaches, said Greg Farrant, an assistant to Mayor Frank Faubert.

He said no one seems much concerned about topless women roaming the municipality and, even if any were, he's not sure anything can be done to prevent it.

Farrant said signs will be posted at city pools asking people to dress appropriately for places used for ``family-related activities.''

But, he added, if women remove their tops, the only thing staff members can do is ``to ask them politely'' to put them back on. He said staff has no authority to order them to cover up or to evict them.

Etobicoke has a bylaw requiring people to wear ``appropriate dress'' at municipal pools but Bruce Ketcheson, a lawyer for the city, said the bylaw does not define what constitutes appropriate dress.

He said Etobicoke parks officials have asked him to ``look at the legal position of the city and its ability to regulate topless bathing in municipal facilities.

``They're facing a new situation and trying to anticipate how to respond,'' he said. He wouldn't discuss what his recommendations are likely to be, saying his report won't be ready until late next week.

The situation resulted from a legal challenge by Gwen Jacob of Guelph, who was fined after taking a topless stroll on a hot July day in 1991. The court overturned her indecency conviction.

Despite the court decision, some officials think municipalities may be able to regulate what dress is appropriate at municipal facilities.

Jim Hoshko, communications supervisor for the City of York, said all Metro municipalities have a bylaw that forbids anyone from creating a nuisance in a public pool or park.

``You can't be a nuisance, which means you can't bother other people,'' he told The Star yesterday.

If someone is bothered by the presence of topless women at a city facility and complains about it, he said, ``the women could be asked to cover up and, if they refuse, asked to leave. If they refuse to leave, police could be called and they could be charged with trespassing.''

Hoshko conceded, however, that ``I don't know how that would stand up to a legal challenge under the Human Rights Code or the Charter of Rights.''

Whitchurch-Stouffville Mayor Wayne Emmerson said since the province has set the standards, there is very little he can do about the issue.

However, he said he talked informally with a couple of other mayors at a York Region meeting yesterday and any possible regulations to cover all of the region's nine municipalities may be discussed at a future meeting.

Hamilton council's parks and recreation committee decided this week to ban topless women from municipal swimming pools.

The decision came after a topless woman swam six times at a city recreation centre in the past five months. She has been warned she will be banned from all city pools if she does not cover up.

Ottawa council decided this week to ban topless swimming at indoor pools but to allow it at outdoor swimming facilities.