When has it become illegal for a four-year-old boy to run around his own yard naked?
On April 19, Tyler McIlwaine, 4, of Brackendale decided to strip out of his clothes when they became wet as his dad washed the car. The little boy continued to run around the family’s front yard on the warm day. It’s a normal thing for a child of that age to take off clothes and act silly, and with his father there, he wasn’t in any danger.
And, to our understanding, he was breaking no law. He was acting like a normal Canadian pre-schooler or toddler.
A neighbour, however, became upset at the little child’s nudity and called police.
While many have attacked this neighbour online since the story broke, the neighbour is not entirely to blame for what transpired next. Three days after the incident, RCMP responded to the neighbour’s complaint by visiting the McIlwaine family. The father, Ian McIlwaine, was away on a business trip, so the officer talked to the mother, who was there with the family’s two boys. The officer was there about half an hour asking questions, even though no crime had been committed. By the time she left, the family was in tears.
The father spoke to The Squamish Chief this week and said the little boys, ages 4 and 6, are now scared they will be taken away by child protective services. The parents are both still reeling from the effects of the RCMP visit and posted about it on Facebook, where they have received an outpouring of support. It seems that most Canadians want to live in a society where young children are allowed to act their age without intimidation.
With tight police resources and rising costs, some people are surprised that RCMP would send an officer to a location where a crime had not been committed. Police receive calls from many in our society and do not respond to each one. We appreciate that police here for the most part do a good job and are often forced into uncomfortable situations between neighbours.
Some who do not support the family have suggested the police were right to step in because of the possibility of pedophilia. However, the four-year-old was with his father, on their property; let’s leave it to parents to judge whether that sort of threat is real. If the parents believed the boy was at risk, they would have acted accordingly.
We don’t need police to raise our children.
– Christine Endicott
