Bar topless women: Petition

TORONTO - A religious congregation called on the federal government Sunday to end "legalized stripping" by limiting a woman's right to remove her top in public.

A petition with 55,000 signatures was delivered to John Nunziata, an independent member of Parliament, during a "protest," which was part of the congregation's regular service broadcast weekly to a television audience of more than one million.

"For a woman to bare her breasts in public is nothing but pornography," Paul Melnichuk, senior pastor, told the congregation of 3,000 at the evangelical Prayer Palace.

The petition was driven by two North York sisters who have started an organization called Keep Tops On. They're calling for changes in the Criminal Code making it clearly illegal for women to go topless in public.

The action comes as a result of an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling last spring which deemed that former University of Guelph student Gwen Jacob was not committing an indecent act by removing her top on a hot summer day.

"While I recognize the equality of men and women . . . most women don't want the right to go topless," Nunziata said after the service. "For those who do want that right, there's a time and a place."