A Montreal woman’s relaxing day at a local park took a confusing turn after she decided to enjoy last Wednesday’s warm weather topless.
After about an hour of bare-chested sun exposure, Jessica Sallay-Carrington said she was approached by two police cadets who told her to cover up or risk a $1,000 fine.
“They said if a police officer had found me in the park topless, then that officer could have given me a $1,000 ticket under the Indecent Acts,” she told CTV Montreal on Tuesday.
The Indecent Acts, or Section 173 of the Criminal Code, applies to, “an indecent act in a public place in the presence of one or more persons, or in any place with intent to insult or offend any person,” as well as “every person who, in any place, for a sexual purpose, exposes his or her genital organs to a person who is under the age of 16 years.”
Sallay-Carrington said the cadets were not aggressive as they looked up the laws in question and contacted their supervisor. She demanded to know why her topless torso was deemed illegal while shirtless men in the park went unquestioned.
“Where does it state that female nipples are indecent, but male nipples aren’t? They never really gave me an answer. They said if you stay here topless we are going to have to call the police,” she said.
While there is a section of the Criminal Code which prohibits public nudity, charges have to be approved by the Attorney General. Some other provinces have granted women the right to bare breasts in public. The rules in Quebec, however, are far from clear.
“They were cadets so they weren’t, I guess, as knowledgeable about the law as they would have been if they had been police officers,” Sallay-Carrington said.
Her brush with the cadets inspired her to seek a better explanation from actual police officers. That did not exactly pan out, she said.
“At the police station they said, ‘It’s illegal. Look it up in the library.’ I said, ‘You’re not going to give me any specifics? What law?’ He said, ‘Go to the library and look it up,’” recalled Sallay-Carrington.
Montreal Police Insp. Andre Durocher told CTV Montreal that walking around the city on public streets topless is “not illegal per se.”
“Most of the time officers will say, ‘Will you please put on your top?’ Most of the people agree or oblige with that,” Durocher said. He also notes there is an infraction for disturbing the peace that could be applied in some cases.
The laws become even murkier at the municipal by-law level. Parks could have their own rules against going shirtless, for example.
Sallay-Carrington said she has publically exposed her breasts in Montreal before without incident, including on one occasion at a public event with other semi-nude women last August.
She said she was not looking to raise awareness of gender equality issues last Wednesday, but she is glad the incident is helping to continue the conversation.
“I think it is ridiculous that my nipples are causing this much attention. I was doing nothing sexual,” she said. “It implies that women’s bodies can be policed. I’m doing something wrong by being topless and a man’s body can’t be policed in that way. I could be sitting next to a topless guy doing the exact same thing, but I am breaking a law.”
With a report from CTV Montreal’s Rob Lurie
