You're not naked if you have shoes on

Chris Wattie

National Post


Thursday, September 19, 2002
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TORONTO -- A group of men who marched in the buff through downtown Toronto during this summer's Gay Pride Day parade were cleared of public nudity charges Wednesday because they were wearing shoes.

Peter Simm, lawyer for the seven men charged with the Criminal Code offence of "being nude in a public place without a lawful excuse," said Crown prosecutors dropped the charges because, technically, his clients were not naked.

"Nude means absolutely, utterly, completely bare without a single solitary scrap of clothing" Simm said.

"If you have any scrap of apparel anywhere on your body, no matter where or how flimsy, then ... you are not 'nude in a public place' under the law."

A Crown prosecutor rose in a Toronto courtroom yesterday, at what was to be the first court appearance for the seven men, to announce the charges were being dropped.

Simm said he was not surprised, since a number of court rulings have set out strict criteria for laying public nudity or indecency charges, criteria that his clients' display did not meet.

"Being naked per se isn't considered immoral under the law," he said.

"It has to cause actual harm to those watching ... [and] I have trouble understanding how the sight of the human body -- in a non-sexual, non-commercial context -- could be harmful."

He said there might have been grounds to lay charges had the seven been behaving in a sexually suggestive manner, but he insisted that was not the case. "The people watching the parade seemed to enjoy it as nothing more than harmless fun."

The men, all members of a group called TNT!MEN (short for Totally Naked Toronto Men Enjoying Nudity), joined the June 30 parade and strolled through the city "wearing nothing but shoes and sunscreen," Simm said, although he added that "one of them had sort of a codpiece on."

When they reached the end of the parade route, police were waiting for them.

"There were about 20 police officers there to arrest them, including a superintendent," Simm said. "It was a highly questionable use of police resources."

Calls to the Crown attorney handling the case were not returned yesterday.

The case was reviewed by Paul Culver, a senior Crown attorney, and Simm said the prosecutor conceded in a letter that "there was no reasonable prospect of conviction."

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