There are three well-known nude, or clothing-optional, beaches around Kamloops and the Okanagan, but they aren’t necessarily official.
Nude beaches are a bit of a legal grey area.
Almost all of them are technically unofficial, even if they’re popular and generally accepted by local governments, and if they are well-known then nudists are unlikely to get in trouble with the law.
Vancouver criminal lawyer Kyla Lee said it’s tricky and uncommon for people to be prosecuted for public nudity at an unofficial but well-known nude beach because of the way the public nudity law is written.
“There is a criminal offence under s. 174 for being publicly nude without reasonable excuse or justification. And that’s where people often find defenses to the nudity allegations when it comes to nude beaches,” Lee said in an email.
There are only two official nude beaches in Canada, Wreck Beach in Vancouver and Hanlan’s Point in Toronto. The rest are unofficial and some are well-known with a long history of nudists or naturists stripping down.
“Wreck Beach in Vancouver… because there have been long-standing cultural tolerances for full nudity there, they operate outside the criminal prosecution sphere,” Lee said.
“Another element that’s necessary is that people be nude in a way that is likely to offend public decency or order; if it’s a nude beach the public decency standard would likely not be met because the expectation is that people will be unclothed.”
Lee said the only time people typically get prosecuted for nudity at an unofficial nude beach is when they are doing something else illegal.
“The prosecution of this offence is rare,” she said. “Typically it is only done where there is some other aggravating element, such as public masturbation or invitation to sexual touching. And even then, the Crown will almost always just rely on the other offences,.”
