The story of Three Mile Beach is an old one.
Once a remote, secluded area, the beach was an ideal spot for nudists — or naturists, as they prefer to be called — to practise their lifestyle preference of enjoying the outdoors without anything between the sunshine and their skins.
In an ideal situation, there is little to be taken offence at in the naturist lifestyle. But the real world is seldom that neat and tidy, which is the case with the complicated issues surrounding the use of Three Mile Beach as a clothing-optional area.
That is why nude beaches are usually found in places that are either remote, or less accessible, like Vancouver’s famed Wreck Beach.
But population centres grow, and Three Mile Beach is no longer a thinly populated area or as far from town as it once was.
Whether it is happening or not at Three Mile already, neighbours of the beach are right to fear the potential of a nude beach to attract an unsavoury element. Then, too, there are the social aspects of the situation.
Naturists may consider their lifestyle to be, well, natural, but it is far from a universal point-of-view. And it would be hard to argue that parents living along Three Mile road should have to either let their children be exposed to naked, adult men and women or never let them play out of doors in the summer.
And, like it or not, the law is not on the side of the naturists. Though it is not strictly enforced by any means, the Criminal Code of Canada specifically prohibits public nudity.
The people who have paid for homes in the area have every right to expect a lifestyle for themselves and their children that suits everyone, not just a special interest group.
It’s time for the naturists of Three Mile Beach to move on and find a new place to practise, whether purchasing property for a nudist camp or finding a new, remote beach.
