Naturist fights for the right to bare all

An avowed naturist hopes to establish a right to public nudity next week – regardless of whether it’s an opportune time of year to exercise it.

Brian Coldin, the owner of a nude resort in Barrie, Ont., intends to argue that a 80-year-old prohibition against public nudity impedes a perfectly harmless form of self-expression.

“It’s the way we were born,” Mr. Coldin said in an interview Monday. “I think this is totally unjust.”

Lawyers for Mr. Coldin assert that Canadians have come a long way since the laws were enacted in the 1930s. Not everyone is inclined to toss his or her own clothes aside, but most are quite prepared to see their friends and neighbours do so, they said.

“Canadians show significant tolerance for nudity and partial nudity, as evidenced by the proliferation of nude beaches, nudity on television and survey results that suggest that a significant number of Canadians have naturist tendencies,” lawyers Clayton Ruby and Nader Hassan said in a legal brief.

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