The City of Toronto has denied a group of women permission to bare their breasts and hold a demonstration in a public park. But the women are determined to at least march at the park’s edge.

GoTopless, a U.S.-based organization, plans to hold its first Canadian protest at Ashbridge’s Bay Park this Sunday. Similar annual events have occurred in cities such as Chicago, New York and Miami.

Members of the GoTopless Canadian chapter are annoyed that Toronto’s parks department rejected a request to “exercise our freedom,” said Sylvie Chabot, one of the event’s planners.

“We’re women who just want to be equal with men, that’s all,” she said.

The event, linked to the Raelian sect, echoes its tenets about sexual equality. “As long as men can go topless,” Chabot said, “women should have the same constitutional right or men should also be forced to wear something that hides their chests.”

She claimed the city based its decision solely on the fact that the women planned to appear bare-chested, a decision she described as inequitable.

An email exchange shows that a permit officer asked whether “women participants will be topless.” Organizers answered that “men and women will be equally topless.”

“That question is discriminatory,” said Chabot. “It’s like asking, ‘Will black people participate in the protest?’ ”

But customer care manager Mark Lawson said the city’s decision was based on the fact that aspects of the event violate the Toronto Municipal Code, a compilation of bylaws.

“We ascertained the nature of the event and a decision was made not to issue the permit,” he said, refusing to specify how the code breached.

Chapter 608 details acceptable conduct in parks, but makes no mention of going topless.

At Sunday’s demonstration, women participants plan to go topless while men will wear a bikini top to show support for equal rights, Chabot said.

GoTopless has started a petition with a target of 7,000 signatures, asking the city to respect equality provisions in the Canadian Charter of Human Rights, as well as a groundbreaking 1996 Ontario Court of Appeal verdict.

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That ruling exonerated Guelph resident Gwen Jacobs who was arrested on a hot summer day in 1991 for taking off her shirt in public. The judgment effectively made it legal to go topless in Ontario.

Raelians see themselves as atheists, but believe scientists from another planet came to Earth and created all life. They hold liberal views on sexuality, which forms a major part of the religion.