From Greg < gellard@auracom.com>
Dear David: Congratulations on your new web page and new group! Yeah!! You managed to break away from that dick-tatorship (sorry, couldn't resist that one!)
I thought I would tell you a story about PEI. There is an area on the island called Blooming Point. It is a very secluded area that takes one about 30-40 minutes to walk to from the road. It is a well-known spot for gay men to hang out nude, and even PEI tourism will tell people that if they want a nude beach, this is the place to go.
Late last summer, after Labour Day, a resident of the area complained about seeing all these "naked bums bobbing up and down in the sand dunes". A local newspaper columnist got hold of the story and wrote about it. Lo and behold, weren't the RCMP out on the beach the very same day.
I happened to be there that day (only my second time there, too!) and another guy came up to me and warned me that the cops were taking names, so if I wanted to lay out nude I should take care. Well, the cops were very obvious by their dress and overall look. I didn't take off my clothes since they were there. This action occurred on the Tuesday after Labour Day-no doubt timed so that there would be no major impact on the tourist trade, which is a multi-million dollar part of the PEI economy!
The four guys whose names were taken were recently charged (after the PC government came into power!). This is a first. The reason the RCMP were there was because, technically, the beach is part of the National Park. Give me a break! You would have to be walking on the beach for such a long time to even come close to the "nude area" and even then, it is not only men who are there. There was a real undercurrent of homophobia associated with the media coverage.
Well, the verdict is in. The judge found the guys guilty of being nude in a public place. Luckily for them, they were given a "sentence" of something like 50 hours of community work and will not have a criminal record. PEI is very conservative and the societal norms here are very different than in Ontario.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Blooming Point this summer, since it has been a well known nude beach for many years!