GoTopless.org rallies for right to bare breasts in city parks
Approximately 20 topless women representing GoTopless.org marched on Queen Street East to Kew Beach in Toronto in protest after the city’s parks department refused their request to celebrate National Go Topless Day at Ashbridges Park on Sunday. A spokesman from the city’s parks department argued that Toronto’s municipal code requires park patrons to be “properly attired.” However, Diane Brisebois, coordinator of the topless protest, argues that if men are allowed to go topless where they please, women should be allowed to do the same. An 1996 decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that women are, in fact, allowed to go topless in public, and the group believes the parks department is in violation of said ruling. GoTopless.org has ties to the Raelian Movement—a fringe organization founded in 1974 on the belief that life on Earth was created by extra-terrestrials.