KITCHENER, Ont. — Three women are demanding an apology, and better education for police on women’s rights, after they say an officer told them to cover up as they cycled topless on a quiet street in Kitchener, Ontario.
Juno-nominated musician and women’s rights advocate Alysha Brilla says she and her two sisters were not wearing shirts as they biked last Friday evening.
Brilla says a male officer in an S-U-V pulled up and told them they needed to cover up because it is the law.
She says she told the officer he was wrong and began filming him, at which point he backtracked to say he was just checking that they had the proper bells and lights on their bikes.
The sisters are organizing a “Bare With Us” rally they hope will educate people on the women’s right to be topless, and desensitize people to the female breast in a non-sexual context.
Ontario women have had the right to go topless in public since 1996 — five years after Guelph university student Gwen Jacobs was charged for committing an indecent act when she walked home shirtless on a hot day.
