The leader of a Calgary nudist recreation group says plans for an unclothed protest at Prince’s Island Park this weekend will be put on the back burner.
Calgary Nude Recreation, founded in 2017 by a naturist who goes by Jeff, was arranging a clothing-optional protest at the downtown-adjacent park this Sunday. However, the demonstration was contingent on whether Calgary Police Service officials would meet with the group to discuss their public safety concerns.
Those concerns, according to Jeff, relate to mounting fears among Calgary’s naturist community that officers will cite them for public nudity if they report or witness crimes — such as voyeurism, sexual harassment, or assault — at the city’s two clothing-optional beaches.
While not technically legal, the clothing-optional beaches in Weaselhead Flats and a secluded area within Fish Creek Provincial Park are an open secret, Jeff said.
Jeff previously said the group’s demonstration would go ahead if police did not respond to his request for a sit-down before Aug. 21.
“If the CPS chooses enforcement action against our legitimate protest at Prince’s Island Park, it reinforces the very problem we are protesting: that people cannot safely call the police when they are participating in lawful nude recreation without fearing they will become the subject of police attention themselves,” he said on his website. “That, in turn, reinforces why this protest is necessary.”
He said CPS sent a letter to Calgary Nude Recreation earlier this week, adding police have declined to meet with the group.
The letter, snippets of which Jeff shared on the group’s website, states that anyone who participates in a naked protest within city limits would be committing a criminal offence.
“They reiterated that all public nudity is criminal and they advise criminals (naked people) to call the police, thereby perpetuating the very ambiguity we have been pointing at,” Jeff said in a social media post. “This can only be intentional.”
Calgary police’s stance contrasts with the RCMP, which Jeff noted told the group that people should report public safety issues regardless of what they are wearing.
“We tried spoon-feeding this to the CPS, and they will not repeat those words,” he wrote.
Chief Constable of the Calgary Police Service, Katie McLellan said protests must be lawful.
CPS’s current anti-nudity stance contradicts a promise from former police chief Mark Neufeld, according to Jeff. He shared a letter Neufeld sent to Calgary Nude Recreation in 2024 that committed to developing a CPS policy to guide how officers investigate calls involving public nudity complaints.
Last week, Calgary police Chief Katie McLellan said people have the right to protest, but must do so lawfully and safely.
Calgary’s officers will police behaviours, not beliefs, McLellan added.
“There’s legislation as to what people can and cannot do, and so where and when we need to enforce the law, we will,” she said. “It’s always made with discretion. There’s always context. There’s always situations that need to be looked at on an individual basis, so we’ll wait and see what happens.
“Individuals who go out and protest, whatever it is that they’re protesting, we have liaison officers, we have conversations. We tell them what the rules are, and then we’ll see what happens from there.”
Jeff said he’s willing to take CPS to court over the issue, arguing that case law regarding the legitimacy of recreational nudity is on his side.
—With files from Noah Brennan