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Nude golfer

23 Aug 2008 13:21

SHEDIAC, N.B. - The trial of a man who enjoys whacking golf balls in the nude at a New Brunswick beach heard evidence Wednesday that several people are offended by his behaviour.

Fifty-seven-year-old naturist Marc Langlais faces charges of being nude in public and several counts of breaching a probation order.

The retired gym teacher from Quebec owns cottages in the Cap-Pele area where he spends his summers.

He and some of his friends practise naturism, which is the enjoyment of nature in the nude.

However, court heard on Wednesday that this doesn't go over well with some of his neighbours who complained to the RCMP about it.

Noella Gagnon testified that she Langlais is constantly parading about in the nude, or wearing just a tiny cloth over his privates.

"We are always bothered when Mr. Langlais is on the beach," Gagnon said in provincial court.

"Even when he has his clothes on?" asked defence lawyer Martin Aubin.

"Well," said Gagnon, "we've never seen him with his clothes on."

Under the law, a person is nude who is so clad as to offend against public decency or order.

During the trial, the defence counsel argued that in today's society, a naked or semi-naked man hitting golf balls on a beach does not offend public order.

Crown prosecutor Gabriel Bourgeois, however, called evidence from three witnesses that they were indeed bothered by Langlais' nudity.

Most testified that sometimes Langlais is nude when he's enjoying the beach and at other times he wears a tiny patch of cloth over his penis, attached by what appears to be an elastic band -- and sometimes a hat and sunglasses.

"He's an exhibitionist," Gagnon testified for the Crown.

"He wanders up and down the beach. Up and down. He mingles in the crowd."

She and complainant Marc Comeau testified Langlais is the talk of the beach, with many beach-goers objecting to his behaviour, including some who have had their children present when Langlais is practising his passion.

His actions include using a golf club to strike a golf ball around the beach or simply sauntering up and down the shore.

Comeau was particularly offended by Langlais bending over to pick up his golf balls.

"When he bends over, we can all see his testicles and his behind," Gagnon said, noting there is not even a g-string as part of Langlais' loin cloth.

The evidence suggests Langlais sometimes sets up on the sandy part of the beach and sometimes, at low tide, he puts up a tiny enclosure, just big enough for one, on a sandbar from which he sets out on walks or golfing excursions along the beach.

Sometimes he's nude, the witnesses said, and sometimes he wears the tiny piece of cloth.

Several people have approached him, asking him to go somewhere else or to wear something decent, but to no avail.

While the defence has yet to call any evidence, during cross-examination of the Crown's witnesses Aubin is clearly trying to show that Langlais is not breaching "contemporary Canadian standards of tolerance," a phrase the Supreme Court of Canada used in declining to outlaw swingers' clubs in Montreal.

Aubin suggested to witnesses that there is plenty of nudity and semi-nudity in public that doesn't offend anyone, from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, to advertising in mainstream magazines that are available even in hospital waiting rooms, to news magazine covers, to racy late-night television shows that feature full frontal nudity and sex scenes.

Bourgeois, however, counters that people have a choice whether they want to peruse those magazines or watch those television channels as opposed to having someone impose their nakedness on them against their will while relaxing at a public beach.

The trial resumes Thursday morning with several more witnesses to be called to testify before Judge Camille Vautour.

Source: The Associated Press
Oct. 3, 2007 04:43 PM

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