Ontario women stopped by police for riding topless

Waterloo Regional Police are the target of a formal complaint planned by three Kitchener, Ont. sisters, after an officer stopped the three women for riding topless last Friday evening.

As Kitchener sweltered under intense heat that day, Tameera, Nadia and Alysha Mohammed were out for a bike ride, and decided to remove their shirts to cool off in the searing conditions. The public reception to their ride was mostly positive, the CBC reported, but when a Waterloo Regional police officer intercepted them on Shanley Street, it was in terms that suggested anything but.

Claiming that complaints had been received, the officer said, “Ladies, you need to put on some shirts,” Tameera Mohamed recalled. “We said, ‘no we don’t,'” Mohamed continued. “It’s our legal right in Ontario to be topless as women.”

Toplessness for women hasn’t been considered an indecent act in Ontario since December 1996, when Guelph, Ont. student Gwen Jacob was acquitted for a 1991 case in which she similarly went shirtless on a hot day.

The precedent set in that case has remained in place since.

During the exchange with police, Tameera’s sister, Alysha, began filming the moment with her smartphone as the officer began explaining his reasons for stopping them, at which point, reports say, the officer began backtracking. At that point, he denied that their topless ride was his reason for pulling them over, and let them continue on their way. They did, albeit with a minor course deviation.

“We…went straight to the police station to report it,” Alysha said.

The plan, the sisters said, is to file a formal complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, the agency tasked with overseeing public complaints against municipal as well as regional police services in Ontario — a designation which includes the Ontario Provincial Police. Additionally, they have a rally planned in Waterloo this weekend, one at which tops will be optional.

“When men take off their tops in public, it’s clearly because it’s a hot day and clear it’s for their comfort,” said Nadia Mohamed, as quoted by the CBC. “Women should be given the same freedom. Even though legally we have that right, socially we clearly don’t.”

While acknowledging the matter, Waterloo Regional Police were short on detail.

“We’re doing an internal review of the situation. It is a current law that if a female chooses to go topless, that is their right.”