September 15, 1997
PREACHER URGES BAN ON TOPLESS WOMEN
By BRAD HONYWILL -- Toronto Sun
God-fearing Canadians are
rising up against female "pornographers" and "legalized strippers"
who take their tops off in public.
And the men and women who support toplessness in the judiciary and legislatures
are "messengers of Satan."
That was the message delivered to 3,000 of the faithful at the evangelical
Prayer Palace in North York yesterday
in what was billed to the media as a protest against women baring their breasts
in public.
The "protest," part of the regular service broadcast weekly to a
TV audience of more than one million, culminated in the presentation of a 55,000-signature-petition
to York South-Weston MP John Nunziata.
"For a woman to bare her breasts in public is nothing but pornography,"
Senior Pastor Paul Melnichuk told the congregation. "We are not going to see
this devastation sweep across the land and involve my wife and my children.
"We have the power! We have the power!" he repeated several times
to cries of "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
The petition was driven by two North York sisters who have started Keep Tops
On (KTO). It calls for changes in the criminal code making it clearly illegal for
women to go topless in public.
An Ontario Court of Appeal ruling last spring deemed that former University
of Guelph student Gwen Jacobs 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.