Seven men who bared all in Toronto''s Gay Pride Parade have been cleared of public nudity charges because they were wearing shoes, their lawyer says.

　　The men, from a socialsgroupscalling itself Totally Naked Toronto Men Enjoying Nudity (TNT!MEN), were arrested and charged under Canada''s Criminal Code after they marched in the annual festival wearing only footwear -- and sunscreen.

　　But prosecutors dropped the charges this week after conceding there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction, said lawyer Peter Simm, a TNT!MEN member himself.

　　Simm said: "The law is very straightforward if someone is absolutely and completely bereft of clothing...however things become a little more complicated if there is a scrap of apparel anywhere on the body……Because everyone wore at least footwear the Crown had to prove indecency and it couldn''t."

　　Simm said his clients, two of them visitors from Texas, were relieved at the decision but upset that they were arrested in the first place.

　　TNT!MEN nude marchers have joined in the gay festival, which attracts tens of thousands of marchers and onlookers in downtown Toronto each year, ever since thesgroupswas first formed in 1997.

　　But before this year they had never been arrested.

　　The Crown, worried about more such incidents, wrote to Simm saying the decision to drop charges should not be seen as a precedent for more incidents in the future.