Score one for the Ladies - 3 Women School a Cop on Top Freedom

[ToneBender]

From: The CBC

Kitchener women say they were stopped by police for cycling topless
Sisters plan to file formal complaint with police watchdog
NEW6:04 PM ET
Albert Delitala, CBC News
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Three Kitchener, Ont., sisters are planning to file a formal complaint after they say they were stopped by a police officer for cycling topless.

Tameera, Nadia and Alysha Mohamed took off their shirts while riding their bikes in downtown Kitchener on Friday evening because of the heat. They say they received mostly positive reaction, until a police officer stopped them on Shanley Street.

"He said, 'Ladies, you need to put on some shirts,'" said Tameera Mohamed. "We said, 'No we don't ... it's our legal right in Ontario to be topless as women.'"

The officer said there had been complaints, according to Mohamed. She said the officer began backtracking once her sister, Alysha, began recording with her smartphone. The officer then denied having pulled them over for riding topless, before letting them continue their ride, Mohamed said.

"We went on our way and went straight to the police station to report it," she said.

Waterloo regional police acknowledge there was an incident involving three topless female cyclists and a police officer, but would not discuss the incident in detail.

"We're doing an internal review on the situation," said Staff Sgt. Michael Haffner. "It is a current law that if a female chooses to go topless, that is their right."

The sisters say they plan to file a formal complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, which oversees public complaints against municipal and regional police services in Ontario as well as the Ontario Provincial Police.

"When men take off their tops in public, it's clearly because it's a hot day and clearly it's for their comfort. Women should be given the same freedom," said Nadia Mohamed. "Even though legally we have that right, socially we clearly don't."

The women are holding a rally in uptown Waterloo on Saturday to support the desexualizing of women's bodies. Shirts will be optional.

In July 1991, University of Guelph student Gwen Jacob was charged after removing her top on a hot summer day. That act started a movement, eventually giving all women in Ontario the legal right to expose their breasts.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/topstories/kitchener-women-say-they-were-stopped-by-police-for-cycling-topless-1.3169479

[crasher35]

That's pretty awesome!

[ToneBender]

I must admit this is a favourite cause of mine.
I would like women to feel more free to be themselves as many really don't.
I would like to see more freedom and equality for women (real not just on paper).
And I would like Canada to be much more like Europe - bare breasts included.

[ToneBender]

Here's another one (2 in the space of a week - possibly hot weather induced):

From: The CBC

Being topless in public is legal, B.C. woman reminds others after police encounter

Susan Rowbottom says she was sunbathing topless when an officer told her to cover up

By Radio West, CBC News Posted: Jul 28, 2015 1:02 PM PT| Last Updated: Jul 29, 2015 10:38 AM PT

If you're topless in any part of British Columbia and a police officer tells you to put a shirt on, you don't have to obey.

That's the message a Kelowna woman wants to deliver to anyone who doesn't realize being topless in B.C. is legal.

Susan Rowbottom says she was at a local beach last week, sunbathing without a top on, when an RCMP officer approached her and told her to cover up. Rowbottom said she did as she was told at the time, though she was fairly certain it was legal for both men and women to be bare-chested in public.
■Kitchener women say they were stopped by police for cycling topless

After confirming with city staff and the local RCMP detachment, Rowbottom said her understanding of the law was correct.

"Hopefully this comes to the RCMP's attention that they can't enforce laws that don't exist," she told CBC's Radio West.

In 1996, the Ontario Court of Appeal granted women in that province the right to bare their breasts in public after overturning the earlier conviction of Gwen Jacobs. Jacobs was initially found guilty of committing an indecent act, but the appeal court later ruled that "there was nothing degrading or dehumanizing" about her decision to take off her shirt in public.

In 2000, the B.C. Supreme Court also stood behind the right of women to bare their breasts. Linda Meyer had been charged with violating a clothing bylaw after showing up topless at a city-run pool, but the judge in the case wrote that there was no evidence to support "the view that the parks could not operate in orderly fashion if a female were to bare her breasts in a circumstance that did not offend criminal laws of nudity." 

Kelowna RCMP Cpl. Joe Duncan says arrests for public nudity are rare, and usually only happen if someone is "doing something sexual," or if a convicted sex offender is naked near children or a school.

'Our society is changing'

Still, Duncan says that if a topless person is asked to put a shirt on because children or families nearby feel uncomfortable, he expects them to comply.

Rowbottom says there were no children around when she was at the beach last week, and no one had complained. However, if there had been a family feeling uneasy and wanting her to cover up, she would have done so out of respect.

Still, Rowbottom wants to normalize the baring of breasts in public.

"I think if men can be topless, women should be able to be topless," she said. "Our society is changing and evolving and I'd like to move forward with that."

Rowbottom's interview comes as three Kitchener, Ont., sisters are in the news for the same reason. Tameera, Nadia and Alysha Mohamed are planning to file a formal complaint after they say they were stopped by a police officer for cycling topless.

Listen to the audio: B.C. woman sets record straight on being topless in public
 
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/being-topless-in-public-is-legal-b-c-woman-reminds-others-after-police-encounter-1.3170353

[Danee]

Obviously, I am really on the same page with these three.  But the protest rally? Not so much.  No charges were filed.  Why protest?  I don't know......

They had a great turnout though.  Props to Ontario Canada for sure.

Hundreds of Canadian women participate in topless march to support three sisters arrested for riding bikes shirtless

[crasher35]

Obviously, I am really on the same page with these three.  But the protest rally? Not so much.  No charges were filed.  Why protest?  I don't know......

They had a great turnout though.  Props to Ontario Canada for sure.

Hundreds of Canadian women participate in topless march to support three sisters arrested for riding bikes shirtless

Agreed, the protest seems a bit much, but I guess it will also help spread awareness within that jurisdiction's police department. If they weren't clear on the law before, they are now. It's good to see that they have a lot of support for this. I don't think there would be as much support here in Florida.

[Dan]

I must admit this is a favourite cause of mine.
I would like women to feel more free to be themselves as many really don't.
I would like to see more freedom and equality for women (real not just on paper).
And I would like Canada to be much more like Europe - bare breasts included.

Even if unambiguously legal from coast to coast, there's not much use made of it in practice. That said, there are for more serious abuses done by cops on a routine basis and on that I'd like if North America was more like Europe. In Montreal going to a peaceful protest usually ends up in police brutality.