PARK ‘PARTY’ SPARKS FUROR
Toronto mayor warns closures could return
Social media furor was swift after photos emerged of thousands of 20-somethings playing catch, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on colourful picnic blankets and cheersing their beers at Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods Park, a large green space frequented by young professionals living in the city’s downtown core.
While one shouldn’t automatically believe everything the photographs seemed to reveal — certain angles could, for instance, make rule-abiding citizens sitting two metres apart appear much closer together — Toronto Mayor John Tory said the behaviour flouting COVID-19 social distancing rules in the park’s centre was just as bad as it looked.
“You can just compare it to a big party,” Tory said in an interview Sunday after having visited the park at 7 p.m. the day before. “It just demonstrated a complete lack of consideration for others.”
The Bellwoods bonanza, which was too big and boozy for police and bylaw officers to reasonably ticket all rule-breakers, raises questions about how Canada’s largest city can persuade young people to follow the rules, what limits it can reasonably place on access to the public outdoor spaces craved by people without the privilege of having private backyards or balconies, and how it will enforce distancing rules as quarantine fatigue sets in.
In Ontario, government rules still limit gatherings to five people and require people to stay two metres apart from those outside their households. Ontario reported 460 new cases Sunday morning, two weeks after Mother’s Day and the fourth straight day of more than 400 new cases even as other provinces’ numbers track downward.
Public gatherings like the one at Trinity Bellwoods could be “selfish and dangerous” and threaten to set back the city where 700 residents have died from COVID-19, medical health officer Dr. Eileen de Villa said on Twitter.
After a day being “so impressed” by citizens respecting social distancing rules in other parks and beaches, Tory said he went to Bellwoods to see whether the city had failed to get the message across to some people. But the several large groups he spoke to were made up of smart people with good jobs and a clear understanding of the pandemic.
“There was zero per cent chance they didn’t know what the rules are,” the mayor said. “They all understood; they just didn’t think it applied to them.”
There was a sense among the younger crowd that COVID-19 won’t really affect them, Tory said, even though 27 per cent with the virus in Canada have been between 20 and 39 years old. But the virus isn’t killing young people en masse. In Canada, 95 per cent of the 6,200 people killed by the virus thus far are older than 60, with 69 per cent older than 80.
While Tory said he understands the frustration of being cooped up in apartments without green space, he was deeply disappointed and frustrated by the lack of personal responsibility given the potential spread if just a few asymptomatic carriers were in the crowd.
The mayor said he “wouldn’t hesitate for one second” to claw back the reopening of activities like sitting in parks or tennis if the medical health officer recommends it going forward.
The debate over park access highlights the socio-economic divide between people who have access to private outdoor spaces and those who don’t in a city of highrise dwellers. While Trinity Bellwoods is in an affluent part of town, lockdown restrictions have made it more difficult to get outside for residents in lower-income neighbourhoods where it’s harder to get to green space. Toronto eventually responded by creating a network of quiet streets to make more room for pedestrians and cyclists.
The park party also raises the question of enforcement. City officials discussed shutting the park down in a call Saturday night, but it was physically impossible to erect barriers in time. Instead, police and bylaw officers ramped up their presence in the park Sunday, starting patrols at 7 a.m. and issuing $100 tickets to anyone consuming alcohol.
Police are following the information handed to them by city officials, Const. Edward Parks said Sunday.
Police did issue some tickets in Trinity Bellwoods on Saturday, but it wasn’t practical to engage everyone in a crowd of thousands, he said. On top of that, police prefer to speak with people about compliance before slapping them with hefty fines.