R. v. The Barn

Peter Simm researched and drafted the successful Factum for the Defendant acquitted of a charge under the Liquor Licence Act regulation, in R. v. The Barn  (2002, Ont. Ct. J.) (orally argued by A. Czernik).

On April 29, 2000, in conjunction with a gay nudist group, a Toronto bar and dance club called The Barn held its 35th monthly event with mandatory nudity. The licensee was charged with “permitting riotous, quarrelsome, violent or disorderly conduct”, per R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 719, s. 45(1), part of the “Licences to Sell Liquor” regulation under the Liquor Licence Act.

In the Ontario Court of Justice on June 26, 2002, Justice Robert Bigelow ordered an acquittal. He accepted Simm's statutory-interpretation argument and so ruled that, as a matter of law, mere nudity which is already anticipated by attendees at an event at a licenced established is not “disorderly conduct”, as it entails no inconvenience, annoyance or alarm among patrons.

This case is the subject of 3 newspaper articles, and is briefly discussed in two books as well as in a scholarly journal article.