New Year’s Eve party bus event cancelled after police scrutiny

It was the party bus that went nowhere.

On New Year’s Eve, following a Niagara Regional Police social media post saying officers were investigating a GTA charter bus scheduled to bring revellers to Niagara Falls to party, the company operating the bus decided to cancel the event.

NRP Const. Jesse Vujasic took to Twitter hours after police announced the investigation to say the event had been shut down.

Niagara police, working with their GTA police counterparts, launched a probe when they caught wind of the event.

Police said the event would be a violation of provincial regulations designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 during the lockdown, and encouraged people to ring in the new year at home.

The local police service posted a Tweet Thursday morning that officers were investigating the party bus event that was scheduled to make stops in Toronto, North York, Scarborough, Brampton, Mississauga and other communities before arriving in Niagara Falls.

“We are investigating. This is not in accordance with #COVID19 regulations. #Stayhome #Staysafe,” said the tweet.

“I should caveat this by saying under most circumstances we do not discuss any details of an ongoing investigation, and this is an ongoing investigation,” said NRP Const. Phil Gavin. “But in this case we wanted to draw people’s attention to this. And if there is another charter bus out there planning to do this, they may think twice about it now.”

The provincial government and public health authorities have been urging people to keep holiday gatherings small, limited to their households.

Non-essential businesses are closed, including almost all of the attractions in the Niagara Falls tourist district which typically attract New Year’s Eve revellers.

The casinos are closed, the Festival of Lights is shuttered and restaurants are open for takeout only.

In addition to the party bus investigation, the Niagara Regional Police was out in force across Niagara both to handle the typical New Year’s Eve issues of impaired driving and other bad behaviour and to enforce COVID-19 laws.

Several hotels, which remain open during the lockdown, hired off-duty NRP officers to be stationed in their buildings to ensure COVID-19 rules were followed, he said.

While police tried to prevent Niagara Falls from becoming party central and risk even more COVID-19 infections, some hotels actively promoted their facilities as a place to celebrate the end of the year.

The Four Points by Sheraton in Niagara Falls, for example, promoted a New Year’s Eve package on its website and Twitter account Thursday. Asked via Twitter about the promotion during a lockdown, the hotel blocked the reporter who posted the question.

Calls to the hotel were not returned.