Women’s breasts are not obscene. Little girls’ nipples aren’t either.

When will they ever learn . . . 

When I switched on my PC this morning and went to look at the CBC news site I was drawn to the link to this story

Guelph parents angry after topless girl, 8, told to cover up

This incident happened in Guelph, Ontario, the city famous in the annals of Canadian top-free rights for being the place where, in 1991, Gwen Jacobs was charged with committing an indecent act by appearing topless in public.  In 1996, Ms Jacobs was acquitted in the Ontario Court of Appeal in a case that determined that a woman being topless in public is not indecent under the meaning of the Criminal Code.  This opinion has since been upheld by courts in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

So, here we are, nineteen years later in the same Ontario city, and an eight year old girl is told to put her tee-shirt on or she had to get out of the wading pool.  The article tells us that parks staff general manager Kristene Scott apologized for the embarrassment caused to the little girl but stands behind the city’s policy to “balance the safety and comfort of everyone.”  She is quoted as saying "Essentially, the policy was put in place because not everyone has the same comfort levels with females being topless."

That is true, not everyone shares the same comfort levels about anything.  So what?  What the little girl was doing was established in law as being a legal act.  Faced with a legal act with which someone on city council disagrees the city opts to attack an eight year old girl and cause her shame and embarrassment.  This, in my mind, constitutes child abuse.

Scott is quoted as saying "Our policy was never intended to offend anybody or make anybody feel uncomfortable or embarrassed. If that little girl in this situation has felt that way, we sincerely apologize for that."  Apologies do no good in such matters;  the harm as already been done.  It seems that the authorities in Guelph believe that causing psychological harm to children is much preferable to telling adult voters to grow up and leave their religious prejudices at home.

The CBC article goes on to tell us that the rule came into force in 2012 when it was decided that “topless women who refused to cover up at public pools would be asked to leave, but if that didn't work, that would be the end of it.”  In other words, the rule has no force at all.  Council knows that it cannot force the issue.  Instead, Council opted for harassment and intimidation -- "slut shaming" and "bullying" by other names -- but recognized that they had no legal recourse if their harassment and intimidation failed.  In such a situation quite clearly it would be easier to harass and intimidate children who do not know their legal rights.

Well done Guelph city council!   For your commitment to human rights and fair dealing I nominate your city to be twinned with Riyadh.