People horrified by claims visitors to Ontario beaches are pooping in the sand

Ontario TikTok is up in arms this week over allegations that visitors to one of the province's most popular summertime attractions, Wasaga Beach, have been relieving themselves in the sand right where members of the public swim and play — and sadly, we don't mean peeing.

A woman who says she lives in the area has posted a number of videos to spread awareness of the trend, which she is vowing to further investigate and showcase in a TikTok series for those who doubt her claims.

"I'm tired of people saying that the people pooping on the beach, 'that's what they do back home' — we are not back home, we are in Canada," the local said in her most-viral clip, clearly responding to ongoing discussion on the topic.

In another, she controversially calls out newcomers to the country, saying regarding the feedback on her other videos that "immigrants pooping on beaches seems to be very common" — a claim that some commenters are calling racist.

"This is an actual issue and it's good to see that people are thanking me for bringing this up... you guys need to know what you're running into when you come to Wasaga Beach, and it's not locals who are doing it," she continues in that clip, which has been viewed more than 700k times on her page alone.

Her account bio now reads "SAVE THE BEACHES🏖️💩" and lists her location as the town of Wasaga Beach.

It’s no surprise, the same thing has happened at Sauble Beach. It’s real 💩💩💩

— VictoriaL59 (@Victoria59L) July 18, 2024

In the comments on the Wasaga woman's videos and upon subsequent reshares of her posts, many have written that they've seen a slew of tents along the locale's shores — beach 1, in particular, is mentioned — which people are believed to be using as makeshift outhouses.

As the user detailed in yet another post, "they dig holes and they put a tent over the hole.... and leave it. We used to sit outside daily and watch people to make sure they didn't do it ...this was a daily occurrence!"

"Honey it's basically happening at every single beach in Ontario at this point in time and it's so sad," one person wrote. Others called out Crystal Beach, Sauble Beach, the Cobourg waterfront, Sandbanks Provincial Park, Port Stanley and other places where this is likewise happening.

"They had to change the signs stating that no four-sided tents are allowed anymore because this started happening three years ago!" another added. The creator also noted that she believes this issue has been prevalent since COVID.

This isn't new... It's been happening at wasaga beach and Centennial beAch in Barrie too

— S.S (@SSwietlinski) July 18, 2024

While no one from the township has replied to blogTO's inquiries at the time of publication, it seems that Ontario Parks has given a brief comment to other outlets saying that their staff "have not observed this activity" during regular patrols and that there are ample washrooms available.

However, these types of stories have been around for a couple of years, and have been covered by local media. Local complaints about these and other concerns resulted in additional patrols and enforcement by park personnel during summer 2021.