Man without clothes on trails
They are concerned, police said, with why the man would be hiking naked in the winter on the Crystal Fall Trail in Coquitlam. He is described as being 5’9″ with dark brown hair in a brush cut and is about 20 to 25 years old. They give no other physical characteristics.
“The area in question is one of the places we patrol regularly, but so far the man remains elusive,” Cpl. Jamie Chung said in a statement. “From talking to witnesses, we don’t believe the man was high on drugs or has a mental health issue. However, we do need to speak to him to find out why he is out in the cold without wearing any clothing.”
The police did not say what they might do to the man should they find him walking in the woods naked. He has not spoken to or in any way approached anyone on the trails where he’s been seen. It seems he simply goes about his hike without any clothing on. On at least one occasion he had a backpack upon his naked personage.
There are laws dealing with public nudity in Canada and Sections 173 and 174 are the statues that do so. Section 174 of the criminal code says that “Everyone who, without lawful excuse, is nude in public, or is nude and exposed to public view while on private property…is guilty of an offence.”
The Naked Rambler in U.K.
The RCMP may well have a burgeoning Naked Rambler on their hands. The Naked Rambler is a 56-year-old man in the U.K., Stephen Gough, who walks all about the country naked. He has been charged and convicted for doing so and since 2006, when he began walking naked in public in earnest, spent five years in jail.
Mr. Gough took his case to the European Court of Human Rights and said his rights are being infringed upon, including his right to freedom of expression, by being imprisoned for his nudity and by not being permitted to walk naked in communities. The judge handed down his ruling last Fall, disagreeing with the Naked Rambler.
“The applicant’s imprisonment is the consequence of his repeated violation of the criminal law in full knowledge of the consequences,” the judge wrote. “Through conduct which he knew full well not only goes against the standards of accepted public behaviour in any modern democratic society but also is liable to be alarming and morally and otherwise offensive to other, un-warned members of the public going about their ordinary business.”
At the moment the Coquitlam RCMP say they are simply going about their ordinary business in seeking to speak with the Naked Hiker. They’ve asked anyone with knowledge of whom this person is to call them. They are, in essence, searching for the naked truth.
