Winnipeg Sun June 20/2000

IT'S OK TO BARE IT AT BECONIA

Title search ends fight

Robert Williams
Staff Reporter


Beaconia Beach's national reputation as an ideal place to skinny dip will continue unchallenged.

A community group that wanted to kill nude bathing has run out of ammunition now that ownership of the land around the beach has been clarified and the RM of St. Clements has clear title.

The St Clements Beaches Association, formed in 1998, wanted to lease the surrounding land and bar nudists from gaining access to the beach on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. But the beach is crown property, and a recent search of legal records showed St Clements has clearly owned the surrounding land since 1990.

That put an end to the association's plans because the municipality has no intention of nixing nude bathers.

Association Distracted

"It's still a free country for people to excersise whatever they want to do," St. Clements chief administrative officer Tom Mollard said yesterday.

The association, which was formed after some children saw nude men on the beach, has been distracted by other projects recently and has no new plan to fight nude bathing, said secretary-treasurer Lori Thomas.

The group has the wrong idea about naturists, beach goers said yesterday.

"If you're hiding something from your children maybe you've got the problem," said Herb Neufeld, 39, who has been going to the beach for mor than 20 years. "It's (nude bathing) been around so long I don't think you could stop it," he said.

RCMP officers have investigated occasional complaints of nudity on the beach, but the Crown attorney has never followed through with charges. And the municipality has pondered a bylaw to ban nudity but dropped the idea because it would have a rough ride in the courts, Mollard said.

Beaconis Beach has been used by nude sunbathers since 1948, says the Federation of Canadian Naturists. It has been written up as a good place for nude sunbathing in national naturist magazines and on the internet.

Naturists said that they were pleased council cleared up the ownership issue and would allow nude bathing to continue.

"There's no problems here whatsoever. Everybody here behaves themselves. The only trouble was them (the beach association)," said David, a Lockport resident who requested that his last name not be printed.