Calypso water park owner stands by topless ban
The owner of two popular water parks, in both Ontario and Quebec, is standing by the position that women are not allowed to go topless on the premises.
This statement comes after a complaint was filed in the City of Cornwall, by an unidentified woman, to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) against policies at the Calypso Park aquatic theme park and several hotels around Ottawa and parts of Eastern Ontario, that require females over the age of 10 to wear a top at pools and in public areas. The filed complaint states that this violates a woman’s basic human rights.
Groupe Calypso Valcartier issued a statement stating that women must have their breasts and lower parts of their bodies covered when on the premises of their water parks, but the statement did not comment on the complaint specifically. Louis Massicotte, CEO of the water park’s parent company, said that this decision was made after consulting several clients and legal advisers in both Quebec and Ontario. Massicotte also says the decision was made based on their “family-oriented clientele.”
This complaint is not without precedence, however. In 1996, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that a topless woman walking down a street in Guelph was not obscene – which essentially made it legal for women in Ontario to be topless in public. The woman who filed the original complaint has not been identified and if there will be further opposition is yet to be seen.