The FCN does not represent naturism within Canada

The Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN) does not represent naturism within Canada.  This claim is axiomatic and is easily proven to be so.

As one member of the FCN Board of Directors has recently pointed out on Facebook, there is not one Federation, but two.  True.  There is the FCN, which purports to represent all naturists outside of Québec, and there is also the Federation of Quebec Naturists (FQN) which claims to represent all naturists within Québec.  But it is worse than that because of a split between eastern and western Canadian naturists way back in the late 1950s, a rift that has never healed.

It started out sometime after World War II with individual 'sunbathing' clubs coming together to form some sort of umbrella organization, the Canadian Sunbathing Association.  But, as in most extended families, there were disagreements, the sum of which was the split and the formation circa 1960 of the rival Western Canadian Sunbathing Association (WCSA) and the Eastern Canadian Sunbathing Association (ECSA).  As if this wasn't enough, the ECSA embarked on its own internecine fights that resulted in the entire thing imploding in 1978, with the FQN having hived off from it the previous year.  Meanwhile out west, the WCSA carried on and has since changed its name to the American Association for Nude Recreation – Western Canadian Region, which of course isn't a Canadian organization at all, but an adjunct of the much larger US association.

Some years after the demise of the ECSA, in 1985 the FCN was formed with the encouragement of the FQN.  It is largely an Ontario-centric organization cooperating with the FQN along the interprovincial boundary and having little to do with naturists beyond those two provinces, but with a few affiliated clubs out west and one in the Atlantic region.

I can't speak for the situation out west but that in Atlantic Canada is pretty clear to me.  Basically, Atlantic Canada is terra incognita for the FCN.  The FCN website is chockablock with errors concerning the region, errors that they adamantly refuse to correct.  No, that isn't quite true, they don't refuse because they don't bother to respond, they just take no action and the errors persist for years on end.

Requests for FCN assistance in forming a non-landed club within NB have met with similar indifference.  The FCN just doesn't affect to care.  That is certainly the way the FCN has come across during the tenure of different presidents.

This shines a light on yet another group, or should I better say number, of naturists that the FCN doesn't represent, the independent naturists.  These are those naturists who don't belong to any existing club, and there are a lot of them.  Some are 'at-home' naturists enjoying the lifestyle in the privacy of their own homes or cottages.  Others are 'away' naturists, enjoying the lifestyle when on vacation somewhere distant where they won't be recognized.  Still others 'free-range' naturists enjoying the lifestyle while camping, hiking, boating, etcetera.  Some few of all of these categories are members of one of the three naturist organizations in Canada, the FCN, FQN or AANR-WCR, but by informal poll of those I have met, most are not members of any organization and see no benefit in becoming members.

Being a great believer in strength in numbers I used to advocate on behalf of FCN membership.  I WILL NOT DO THIS ANY LONGER, and this is why:

In 2017 the FCN Board of Directors decided to participate officially in the Toronto Pride parade under the banner of the FCN.  I object to that and I am not alone in objecting.  However, I do not object to the Toronto Pride parade, I support the concept, if not the actual presentation of the concept.  People are people and should not be discriminated against on the basis of their sexuality.  Those who wish to parade their sexuality with Pride should do so with pride.

However, the FCN is not all about sexuality, or at least it shouldn't be.  Really, how can it be?  One of the very fundamental principles of naturism is non-sexualized social nudity.  I support that principle  fully.  I believe that sexuality and sex are private matters and that sex must remain as a private matter between consenting partners of legal age.  So I have trouble with the FCN deciding to parade within Pride, thereby conflating the very separate issues of nudity and sex.  This will confuse the public at large and will harden the prejudices of those already opposed to either or both ideas.  What FCN participation within Pride will do, whether they intend it or not, is to confirm the commonly held public perception that nudism / naturism is just one sexual fetish amongst a host of others.  I don't believe that FCN participation within Pride is good for naturism and I don't think that it is good for Pride either.

For those naturists who adhere to the principle of non-sexualized social nudity the FCN's decision is anathema.  I'm one of those people.  Others have had their say in other places, this is mine.  How can we as naturists either expect respect from society at large or hope to convince the nudism-curious that nudity does not equate to sexual conduct when the FCN, the supposed guardian of naturist ideals within Canada, is giving out the exact opposite message.

Needless to say I registered my disapproval with the decision on the FCN Facebook page, as did others.  These were valid concerns and quite well articulated I thought, and were supported by other readers.  The response from one of the Board of Directors was abuse and personal attacks.  When I appealed to the FCN President, I was informed that since I had declined to accept a position on the Board in 2016 I had no right to an opinion on the matter.

This brings up a whole new category of naturists that the FCN does not represent, all those who fail to agree with the Board and therefore are not entitled to hold an opinion or have it heard.  This, I strongly suspect, is by far the larger portion of the FCN membership.  And this is why I cannot support the FCN in any way, it represents nothing but the opinion of an inner cabal.


So, what should a national representative organization for naturists be doing in order to further the cause of naturism in Canada and to represent the interests of all naturists?  I have a few ideas on that but, as the FCN President has pointed out, my opinion doesn't count within the FCN.  That being the case I offer these ideas not to the deaf FCN but to the majority of Canadian naturists, people who may as well be the silent majority because the deaf FCN does not trouble itself to listen.  They are like the hedgehog in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, they just can't be buggered at all.
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In the considered opinion that I am not allowed to have within the FCN, first and foremost, I believe that a true national representative association for naturists should concern itself with working towards the decriminalization of simple public nudity through the repeal of Criminal Code S.174 and the rewriting of SS.173 and 175.  This requires work, lots of work, not just playing volleyball.
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Second, and further to the first goal, or perhaps as an avenue towards it, the Federation should be willing, able and prepared on short notice to intervene in Canadian court cases concerning innocent public nudity by submitting amicus curiae briefs whenever such intervention is warranted. 
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Third, and still further to the first goal and as an avenue towards it, the Federation should be willing, able and prepared to intervene with print and broadcast media whenever the words naturism/naturist or nudism/nudist are bandied about in error with a well grounded refutation of the published errors.
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Fourth, the Federation should undertake a program of public education so that the general population understands that the naked human form is neither an invitation to have sex nor a threat to society.
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And fifth, but not last, the Federation should provide a secure home with secure principles for all Canadian naturists, whether or not they choose to be members of the Federation , and a  secure forum in which all are able to state their case and be listened to without being denigrated by some jumped up Facebook page administrator and without being ignored by a self-absorbed Board.

If secure personal nudity is the ultimate expression of personal freedom then the proper environment of such freedom is one of guaranteed democracy.