Fridae

A judge ruled that Toronto Police had seriously violated the privacy rights of several hundred bare-breasted women when they used male officers to raid a lesbian bathhouse.

The charges against two women who helped organise an all-night lesbian bathhouse in Toronto were also dismissed Thursday.

Justice Peter Hryn threw out all the evidence obtained by five male police officers against Jill Hornick and Rachel Aitcheson at the five-storey building where the carnival-like event was held.

Without the police officers' observations from Sept. 15, 2000, the Crown didn't have enough evidence to proceed with a case against the pair, charged with various offences under the Liquor Licence Act.

The case sparked heavy criticism from Toronto's gay community, one of the largest in Canada who felt the plainclothes male officers had humiliated the women--the majority of them naked or topless--by lingering at the party for more than an hour, saying they were looking only for alcohol violations.

Frank Addario, Hornick and Aicheson's lawyer said police should have known better since Canada's Charter of Rights protects people from unreasonable searches, which by law includes physical searches by opposite-sex guards.

Hryn agreed saying that the organizers and the 350 partygoers had the right to expect that female officers would search the premises since it was a women-only party.