Klubmasta Will

Calgary wants to ban raves because of a stabbing ...

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Monday 29 May 2000
Calls grow for rave crackdown

Stabbing follows all-night party in S.E. Calgary

Michael Lau, Calgary Herald

Several aldermen are calling for a clamp-down on raves after a young man was stabbed early Sunday -- moments after an all-night dance party he was at wrapped up in southeast Calgary.

Ald. John Schmal said the answer to policing the events might be an all-out prohibition. "If they cannot (control themselves), I'm heading towards banning these events because I don't think they're in the interests of our community," he said.

"If they want to control their own destiny, these young people, they're going to have to really control their activities. Otherwise, it's time to starting looking at possible bylaws where these events are no longer possible in our city."

Ald. Barry Erskine said the time for increased regulation is close.

"If this kind of thing continues to happen, then there's going to be pressure by society to severely limit them or eliminate them," he said. "Bylaws should be the last resort, we're bylawed to death in this city. Unfortunately, it looks like the moment of last resort is fast approaching."

Three people were injured in the incident. The 22-year-old man was rushed to Foothills Hospital at about 6:20 a.m. after he was stabbed in the chest, side and hip in the parking lot of the bingo, ball hockey and sports centre, at 707 Barlow Trail S.E.

The rave, which attracted more than 200 people, had just ended in the building when the assault occurred. Two other men, ages 23 and 24, suffered minor injuries, police said.

Police detectives interviewed several witnesses and possible suspects Sunday. A knife and other articles were seized near the crime scene.

Along with aldermen, police also raised concerns about the safety of all-night rave parties, which have become increasingly trendy with teenagers. In other communities, including Edmonton, ravers have been taken to hospital suffering from drug overdoses. Ecstasy, a drug that boosts energy and makes users feel in love with the world, is considered a mainstay of raves.

"Anytime we have groups of young people who are poorly supervised or mis-supervised that are put in a position where there's an availability to drugs or alcohol, we do have a concern about that," said Insp. Brendan Kapuscinski.

But a man who attended the weekend rave said the attack was not typical of the events.

The man -- who asked that his name be withheld -- said the victim was leaving the bash with about seven friends when the attacker and 30 companions caught up to him in the parking lot.

"It had nothing to do with the rave," said the man, adding he's attended a dozen other raves without incident. "It can happen anywhere. If it happened at a mall, you wouldn't say you'd never go to another mall -- or if it was at a restaurant, that you'd never eat out again."

Some aldermen weren't ready to embrace the notion of an all-out ban, but said stiffer regulation is necessary.

"We do need to recognize teenagers are going to get together and party and have fun and have dances regardless," said Ald. Jon Lord. "The question is: Are you going to drive them underground or should you bring it out and make sure they're in a controlled environment?"

Ald. Dale Hodges said banning the raves would drive them underground.

"They simply get organized informally with no one's particular permission, which happens in other major cities in the world," said Hodges.

"How would you enforce it? Call out half the police force? This isn't that simple a problem."

A possible approach could be a permit or licensing system for the functions, he said.

"At least, you'd know where they were located and you could try cleaning the drugs out," he said.

Rather than an outright ban, Ald. Joanne Kerr said the city should restrict raves to high school and college-age youths. And Ald. Sue Higgins said the city should consider a mandatory number of security guards or medical workers at the events.

Klubmasta Will

Ottawa wants to ban raves because of a car accident ...

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Saturday 27 May 2000

Rave promoters vow to defend thriving industry

All-night music events will go underground, organizers warn

Lynn Saxberg
The Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa-Carleton police Chief Vince Bevan's promise to crack down on Ottawa's rave scene could jeopardize a thriving industry and drive it even further underground, say members of the area's electronic-music community.

"There's a lot of people who have their lives invested in this and if there's people going around trying to stop it, it potentially ruins lives," said Jeff Lapratte, an Ottawa DJ and promoter.

"There are DJs and producers, that's what they do. That's what they know and they've been doing it for 10 years, writing music and making money off this whole rave scene. It's going to be a fight."

Chief Bevan said Thursday he will "dedicate our resources" to preventing raves by discouraging venue owners from renting to rave promoters, and discouraging police officers from working off-duty to provide security at the parties.

His comments came after 18-year-old Emilie Lefebvre died in an accident on Sunday morning when the car she was a passenger in crashed into the concrete barrier along the Queensway near the Woodroffe eastbound off-ramp, tumbled into a ditch and smashed into a light standard.

Ms. Lefebvre and four friends were coming home from an all-night rave at the Capital City Speedway in Stittsville. The driver, Marjorie Savoie, has been charged with reckless driving.

As is common at raves, no alcohol was served at the Capital City event.

While Ottawa's rave scene is small compared to that of Toronto, where raves regularly draw 20,000 people almost every week, it's growing. Promoters say they can expect up to 2,000 people at their events, which are held every few months. That's more than double the turnout of raves held five years ago.

And because of the burgeoning interest in electronic music, the rave scene shows no signs of disappearing.

"It's not going to stop," said Mr. Lapratte. "If you're going to do something that tears down the rave scene, then it's going to go underground and people are going to start renting illegal venues."

And if promoters hold raves in inadequate venues without proper fire escapes or water, for example, it would compromise the safety of partiers, he added.

Chief Bevan said yesterday that he hopes to make it difficult for promoters to find any venues, illegal or otherwise. Historically, when a city has acted to stop raves, the promoters move them outside of the city. But Chief Bevan is in discussions with other police forces in Western Quebec and Eastern Ontario. "We're partnering with the Outaouais and they're very interested in our approach to the problem," he said.

Toronto recently banned raves from city property for the summer, despite lobbying by the Toronto Dance Safety Committee, a group made up of rave promoters, police officers, city council members and journalist Alex D., who publishes Tribe, an online and hard-copy monthly rave magazine.

Alex D. said Chief Bevan's comments echo those made by Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino.

"To tie this (accident) directly to raving, is, in my view, an attempt at gaining political mileage," he said. "It sounds like, if you have a new police chief, he's probably using the Fantino model to gain fame and notoriety. It's become a bit of a hysteria issue."

Many observers compare the furore over raves to the view of rock 'n' roll in its early days.

"Take the rock era," said Ottawa rave organizer Neil Carter, 24, of Pozativ Promotions, who attended the Capital City event and found it to be one of the best-organized parties he'd seen in a long time.

"Parents did not like it -- it was the devil's music back then. It seems society is scared of anything new," he said. "But rock's fine nowadays. Back in the '80s it was rap. Nobody wanted rap around, thinking that it was a bad thing. Now it's one of the biggest (styles of) music going."

Mr. Carter said Chief Bevan's threats won't deter him from throwing raves, but he'll make sure he has the bases covered.
"I'll have to make sure that I have my ambulance people there," he said. "I'll have to make sure that I have tight security. Maybe we might eventually have to do an 18-plus event or something like that to keep the police chief off our butts."

But Chief Bevan said yesterday that he's concerned about all raves, whether restricted to ages 18 and over or not. "It's the same problems, whatever the ages," he said. "People packed into tight spaces, overcrowded and dehydrated -- it's still unsafe."

Mr. Carter's business partner, 25-year-old Chris Adamowicz, also known as DJ Balu, said a police crackdown is likely to make it more difficult to get a suitable venue, and he worries about it affecting his livelihood.

"Will it affect me? Big time. I make all my money by playing parties and stuff like that," he said. "This is my living right now."

But Nick Reichenbach, co-owner of the Ottawa nightclub Atomic, welcomes the crackdown, and any resulting legislation, as an inevitable part of a subculture going mainstream.

"Right now what's happening, we're in a transitional period, and anybody can (hold a rave)," Mr. Reichenbach said. "And when you give anybody the ability to be an entrepreneur, some are better than others."

For the safety of ravers, he believes it's a positive development for police and government to be concerned about the industry.

His business partner, Bill Melnyk, still thinks education and discussion are needed to close what's basically a generation gap.

"To me, 2,000 kids out late at night is no different than 30,000 at a hockey game. But we know what a hockey game is like ... there's people beating each other up on the ice and drinking large quantities of alcohol in the stands and yelling at each other and the referee. We think it's common.

"But when 2,000 kids get together at four o'clock in the morning -- maybe these people don't know exactly what's happening."

Naphta

Well The Fantino Hysteria thing...
Ive always thought that ever since boothby relinquished power over to Fantino...Fantino has looked for ways to make himself known.
What hes doing is throwing around propaganda to News Papers like the Toronto Sun so it seems he is working on ways to make the city safer.
...I read in a toronto sun article Fantino telling reporters that at raves there are flyers promoting drug use.
It has come to my attention he was talking about those pamphlets from T.R.I.P.
Arent those pamphlets like education tools.
They tell you the risks involved for drugs taken, and they tell you how to lower the risk.
Oh well what do I know...Im JUst a Kid, and no one listens to kids.
~ ~!

s4

Just as a note on the ottawa scene.. the media is absolutely rediculous.. They turned a car accident, that happened while neither under the influence of drugs OR alcohol, into a rave related incident. People in other cities are just seeing what's happening in toronto, and feeding on the frenzy. official reports regarding the death (which happened on the way home from my event, the gathering on may 20th) are as follows.

the police who we hired for the event (4 in total) said 'there was no drugs or alcohol'

we had full approval from city councils, including noise by-law excemptions, the whole nine yards.

this whole thing is a witch hunt in ottawa, fueled by the media hype in toronto. the media and political figures in my mind had best smarten up if they want to stay in office and explore FACTS, not fantasy's.