This Little Piggy Stayed Home

There are social cults that are little-recognized by wider society, some of them adverse enough to the generalized social contract that they present an affront to human sensibilities and others a decided unlawful contrivance to avoid paying taxes.  People declare themselves to be part of a social movement that reflects a set of values that run counter to prevailing social values.  There are groups who insist they are free not to pay taxes, and go about doing just that, facing substantial fines and imprisonment.

And then there are those less taxing on government patience by withholding from Caesar that which he has declared his entitlement, by simply refusing simple generally-accepted practices that most of humanity believes is of benefit.  While nudists who claim that going unclothed is natural and they prefer being natural to being modestly ashamed of what nature has produced, and which nudists declare beautiful when unadorned, do tend to raise a public alarm that offends the sensibilities of modesty, others who do dress themselves, but resist wearing shoes are simply considered eccentric.

One such eccentric, Anemone Cerridwen, born in Ottawa and a serial resident of various parts of Canada is affronted because the public transit system in Ottawa, OC Transpo, acceding to the rules and regulations of the Canadian Transportation Agency, rejects her wish to travel on public transit unshod.  Ms. Cerridwen, a writer, has chosen to be barefoot and has practised barefootery since 2009, claiming that going barefoot has been a boon to the health of her problem-prone feet, difficult to adequately shoe.

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If you come away from these pages with nothing else, at least know these things:

It is healthy for your feet to go barefoot. It is not against the law to go barefoot into any kind of establishment including restaurants. It is also not against any health department regulation. It is not against the law to drive barefoot.

"I am the Anti-Cinderella of the shoe world. My feet are so wide and square toed that no shoe will fit on my foot, even with the considerable deformation my feet have experienced from shoes over the years. And I'm not about to cut off toes to land that prince!
"I think what happened is that wearing shoes became so normal that people forgot ... how much easier it usually is to go barefoot rather than wear shoes, once you get used to it.
"OC Transpo has never been required to provide evidence justifying their rule, which is too bad, because I don't think there is any."

Anemone Cerridwen

Madam anti-Cinderella blames the wearing of shoes for giving her heels that tend to bleed, calluses under toenails, corns and overlapping toes.  Going about barefoot even in winter can be uncomfortable, but manageable, she insists, a trade-off between the ills to human feet caused by wearing rigid, unnatural footwear or suffering from the cold while one's feet become accustomed to their new, unprotected reality.  "Your feet do get used to the cold up to a point, and it ends up coming out even much of the time. And when it's really cold, or with deep snow, you stay in or take transit, like everybody else does."

Uh, huh, but not Anemone Cerridwen.  OC Transpo's accessibility specialist responded to Ms. Cerridwen's plea for understanding with their own issues: "Although we understand your predicament regrettably you must understand that the safety of all our passengers is important to us and we cannot recommend that you travel on board our system without proper foot attire."

Unwilling to take 'sorry, but no' for an answer she went onto a bus sans shoes regardless, filing a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, which refused to hear her case because OC Transpo's regulations fall under federal jurisdiction. And when she placed her complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, she was redirected to the Canadian Transportation Agency, handling mobility problems for disabled travellers.

"The Agency is of the opinion that the problems with Ms. Cerridwen's feet -- overlapping toes, bleeding heels, corns, calluses, blisters and squeezed toes - are common, relatively minor and, in most cases, easily addressed by people and usually without medical intervention."

Where are those old-fashioned cobblers, able to produce a pair of made-to-order shoes to solve this poor woman's problems?  Well, they're out there, no longer old-fashioned, but pricey professionals willing to produce footwear for those who can pay handsomely for the privilege of having handmade leather shoes proportioned precisely to individual physiognomy and aesthetic taste.  Alas, Ms. Cerridwen is on disability, and not one of those with cash to spare.

But shodding herself isn't the issue as far as she is concerned; her human rights have been transgressed and society cannot recognize the value of living naturally.  Not in Ottawa, at any rate, where winters are unkind to the unprepared.