Editor:
It’s time we had a public discussion about nudity on our publicly accessible shores of the Sunshine Coast to avoid needlessly engaging essential police resources to investigate suspected nudity based on an archaic law (section 174 in Canada’s Criminal Code), nevertheless subject to a summary conviction providing the Attorney General consents to such a proceeding.
Are community standards still so unaccepting of a human body slipping into or out of the water on a hot summer day to find it “offensive against public decency?” That is the written rationale behind the law about being seen naked in Canada.
This is not merely an imaginary issue. Police on the Sunshine Coast were, for example, called earlier this month by at least one Halfmoon Bay resident claiming a person was down by the water nude. It resulted in an investigation and a case file being opened.
The law can be used to intimidate or chase away visitors or anyone living here based on a mere selfish preference not to have people around because it diminishes this hyper regard for privacy, even beyond one’s own property where it is a public space. This is, no doubt, likely to be a growing issue with increasing visitors and new residents arriving on our Coast.
Clothing-optional swimming areas have already been created and tolerated in places such as Vancouver, and efforts are underway to allow an area for such “naturism” at Roberts Creek. Puritanical societies such as those based on extreme religious orthodoxy find seeing nakedness as offensive. Western European liberal democracies have moved beyond such intolerance and allow nude bathing in many areas. It’s time we removed this outdated law from the Criminal Code, ending the attending intimidation and shame.
Wendy Harmer, Vancouver
