The owner of two popular water parks in Ontario and Quebec says women will not be allowed to go topless there despite a Human Rights complaint.
Groupe Calypso Valcartier issued a statement Wednesday to say women must continue to wear swimwear covering their breasts and the lower parts of their bodies.
The parks are in Limoges, just south of Ottawa, and Valcartier, near Quebec City.
The decision follows a human rights suit filed in Ontario earlier this month targeting the city of Cornwall over its policy of not allowing women to go topless at municipal pools.
The Calypso Theme water park in eastern Ontario and seven hotel companies were also named in the complaint filed with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
Louis Massicotte, CEO of the water park's parent company, says the decision to maintain the topless ban was made after consulting clients and legal advisers in both Quebec and Ontario.
"It is not out of a sense of modesty that we have made this decision but rather it is simply because we have listened to the views of our family-oriented clientele on this matter," Massicotte said.
In December 1996, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that a woman's topless stroll down a street in Guelph was not obscene, making it legal for all women in Ontario to be topless in public.
Groupe Calypso Valcartier says it won't comment on the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario application, but reiterated its respect for the rights of everyone, including children, who visits its facility.
