The City of Calgary has cancelled a “family friendly” nudist swimming event after thousands of people signed a petition claiming that the event would attract child sex predators.
Over 20,000 people signed the online petition calling for the event to be cancelled despite organisers saying they would be going ahead with the “Naked Waterslides and Wave Pool” event, the Calgary Herald reports.
The event was organised by the Calgary Nude Recreation group who released a statement on Facebook regarding the petition saying: “There are no nude beaches anywhere near Calgary, so this is the only place we get to have non-sexual naked fun with like-minded individuals. We recognise and are OK with the fact that these events are not suitable for everyone.”
“Calgary Nude Recreation events will ALWAYS be family friendly, regardless if there are children present or not, and the people attending this event understand that,” the group added.
April Parker, the author of the petition against the event, said she is not against nudist events that involve adults but warned that events with children could attract child sex predators saying such an event would “be like Christmas to them”.
Syrian asylum seekers arrested for filming and molesting underage girls at a swimming pool in Germany. https://t.co/B1FV4JkMV8
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 11, 2017
Breitbart London contacted the City of Calgary who said that the event had been cancelled.
In a press release, James McLaughlin, acting director of Calgary Recreation, said: “Under the Terms and Conditions of facility rental agreements, The City reserves the right to cancel or amend permits should special circumstances arise. Unfortunately, recent events have created the potential to impact the safety of participants, public and staff, and required the cancellation of this booking.”
Sex attacks are rare at Canadian swimming pools but there were two prominent cases last year, both of which involved migrants.
In Edmonton, a Syrian asylum seeker was accused of sexually assaulting six teenage girls and in Windsor later that year another Syrian asylum seeker was sentenced for pleasuring himself in a public shower and “massaging” a young boy.
In Germany, migrant sex assaults at swimming pools have been frequent since 2015. In many cases, children have been the victims of sexual molestation with one of the most recent cases involving a 63-year-old man molesting children as young as seven.
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