Topless protester in court

EDMONTON — A woman facing a criminal charge after a topless protest at the Juno Awards said she isn’t upset about Avril Lavigne swearing at her and demanding she get off stage.

Casey Hatherly, who goes by the name Ever, hopped on the Junos stage on Monday night while the Canadian pop-punk star was introducing a performance.

“I really was hoping that Avril would be punk rock and anti-establishment, maybe hand me the mic and let me say my thing,” said Hatherly in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I’m totally not upset about anything that went down.

“Just tell Avril I’m not mad.” Hatherly also made a court appearance Wednesday in Edmonton on a charge of mischief.

The 37-year-old from Vancouver said it was easy for her to get onto the stage before security escorted her away.

“I just walked up there,” Hatherly told media outside court. “It was so easy.”

She said she spent the night in custody and officers played Lavigne’s 2002 hit “Sk8er Boi” while driving her to a remand centre.

“Everybody there was very excited to meet me and wanted to talk to me.”

Messages written on the protester’s upper body read “land back” and “save the Greenbelt,” referring to Ontario’s decision last year to open a protected area of land for housing.

“Unfortunately, only two of the messages really came through in the media so far,” said Hatherly, adding that other words written on her body referred to the Trans Mountain Pipeline and old growth logging.

“We chose to do this event and I chose to go topless because we want the headlines,” said Hatherly, who works with the group On to Ottawa.

The interaction has made global international headlines, including on the BBC and in Rolling Stone and Variety.

“We are on to Ottawa to demand a citizens assembly to address the desperate need for climate action,” Hatherly said.