05-16-2004, 02:41 AM
Chaerophon,May 15 2004, 01:14 PM Wrote:The law being that you can parade around topless... Clear?It's not quite as simple as that, I'm afraid. The devil is in the details.
Yes, a woman in Ontario can walk around topless, but not if she is doing so in an indecent way that promotes a sexual purpose. The wording I used is entirely my own, but suffice to say that hookers cannot walk around topless in the hopes of making a few extra bucks.
This all stems from an incident in which a woman named Gwen Jacobs decided to walk home topless on a very hot day back in 1991. She was pro-women's rights, and was pissed off at the fact that men could walk around barechested in extreme heat and she could not. She did this to challenge the current (at that time) law, and was subsequently charged with public indecency. She was convicted, and appealled. Her appeal went through many Ontario courts until it finally landed on one in 1996 that overturned the indecency conviction. The court agreed that what she did was not an indecent act, and therefore wasn't criminal.
The overturning of the indecency conviction by an Ontario court (I forget which one) is the precident set that legally allows women in Ontario to walk around topless. I don't think any wording changes to the Constitution or laws were made, but I could be wrong.
It's not like any of this matters though. Ontario women either don't walk around in public with their breasts exposed, or I'm just not looking in the right spots. It's not like it's booby central here in Ontario. And to be quite frank, no one really cares. They're just boobs. If I saw a hot supermodel parading down the street topless I'd say "Oh look! Boobs.", and then I'd say "HEY LOOK GAS IS 95 CENTS PER LITRE CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??? ARGGHHH, I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS CRAP!"