Topless Equality in Canada

I was out and around today and happened across a friend of mine – an RCMP friend.  So I asked a question or two and we ended up having a fairly long discussion on the matter of toplessness.  For the record, and I told him this, I am completely in favour of equal topless rights.  Why?  Not because it is a chance to see some woman’s breasts, but because it is a chance to see a confident woman exercising both the courage of her convictions and her legal rights.  The RCMP officer was also in favour of toplessness but he didn’t elaborate his reasons.  He doesn’t have to; that is his right.

The topic was raised because of the recent (Summer 2015) incidents in Waterloo and Kelowna where police officers have very clearly overstepped their brief both to know the law and also to uphold it.  Instead, they let their personal prejudices get in the way of their duty.  In the opinion of my friend the RCMP officer in Kelowna is sure to be reprimanded both for what he did and for embarrassing the RCMP in the process.  Frankly, the RCMP has enough problems to sort out without some lout amongst their number simply making things up.

So the conversation continued, because we were in neither Ontario nor BC, but in NB.  "What," I asked, "would be the reaction of RCMP here (or in PEI or NS) to a topless woman.  Would she be arrested?"  The answer is not entirely clear as, for all that the provinces of Canada have a uniform Criminal Code, and all provinces (less Québec) follow the principles of the Common Law, provincial jurisdictions are separate and judges are individuals.  What this means is that while the interpretation of “indecency” vis-à-vis female toplessness has been decided in Ontario and upheld in both BC and Saskatchewan, it has yet to be decided elsewhere.  True, there have been no new charges laid anywhere, but that is not the same thing at all.  There is more work to be done.

For the police within the as yet undecided provinces this situation does not provide firm guidance.  What this means is that the decision is “sort of” left up to the discretion of the individual officer.  If he/she arrests a woman for being topless the officer runs the risk of being pilloried in social media and the press.  If he/she does not arrest a woman for being topless the officer runs the risk of being reprimanded for not upholding the law.  The lack of a uniform cross-Canada legal interpretation represents not only legal jeopardy for any woman wishing to exercise topless equality but also a no-win situation for the officers involved. 

According to my friend, unless an incident of toplessness resulted in some sort of complaint, or unless some other problem such as public intoxication was involved, most RCMP officers would prefer to turn a blind eye to the situation.  If there is a complaint the officer would probably just inform the topless woman of the complaint and, if she covered up, no further action would be taken.  However, since it remains a legal grey area there is no guarantee of that.  Caveat emptor!
 
The situation is clouded further by the fact of the World Naked Bike Ride which involves not only toplessness, but full nudity in places far more public than a beach or a hiking trail.  Since 2004, WNBR events have occurred across Canada, at least once, in all provinces except SK, NB, PE and NL.  The fact that these events took place in an orderly fashion and in most (all?) cases with police escorts, without charges having been laid, is illustrative of the level of community toleration for nudity and semi-nudity within Canadian society as a whole.  Granted, the WNBR is officially a protest event and different rules apply to such events.  And yes, there were some complaints made by the indignant minority but generally such events are greeted by the public with either vocal support or indifference.  This, I consider, bodes well for any real court challenge to anti-toplessness and anti-nudity laws.

But such challenges must be made and court interpretations must be written into the record before women can feel secure in top-free equality, in non-protest situations, in all provinces across Canada.