Universities meet in Waterloo to discuss unsanctioned street parties
WATERLOO — Wilfrid Laurier University played host to eight Ontario universities for a discussion on unsanctioned street parties such as the annual St. Patrick’s Day party on Ezra Avenue in Waterloo.
“Some people tend to think it’s a phenomenon unique to Waterloo and it certainly isn’t,” Kevin Crowley, Laurier’s director of communications, said of the street parties.
“This is a phenomenon we’re seeing right across Ontario and throughout the states, and universities are quite serious and quite committed to being part of the solution.”
Fifty-four representatives from universities including Waterloo, Queen’s, Guelph, Western, McMaster, Ottawa, Brock and Carleton were joined by members of the Waterloo and Kingston police forces and city representatives at the meeting held Friday on Laurier’s campus. The goal was to have a shared discussion about the challenges each school faces, what has worked when trying to control the parties and what hasn’t.
“We had a good day of discussion around what’s working and what’s not (and) how we can show a united front in trying to use the best ideas and the best practices to change behaviours and reduce the size of these gatherings, and hopefully one day end them all together,” Crowley said.
The challenges each school faces are similar, he added.
One is the growing number of people attending unsanctioned street parties. In Waterloo, 22,400 people came out to Ezra Avenue last year on St. Patrick’s Day; the year before the crowd was estimated at 15,000.
Another challenge is the influx of people from out of town. Crowley said 73 per cent of the 619 charges laid at last year’s Ezra Avenue party were against students who don’t attend Laurier.
Of that 73 per cent, there were students from 36 different institutions, he said.
“How do you reach out to those people who are coming from out of town on buses, in cars and so on?” said Crowley. He said Laurier knows its students do attend the party but the school is able to get messaging to its students about the consequences of attending, and to try and dissuade them from participating.
Crowley said that residents in all of the university communities have all expressed the desire to have the unsanctioned events stopped.
“It may seem like a simple problem to solve but in fact it’s very difficult,” he said. “Very smart people with the police, very smart people with the city, very smart people with the universities have been trying to contain this and shrink it and hopefully eliminate it and it’s slow going. If it was easy I think we would have resolved it already.”
Crowley said that this year the City of Waterloo, police and the universities will take a similar approach to the St. Patrick’s Day gathering on Ezra as they did last year. There will be a substantial police presence; Laurier special constables will be out as well as contracted security, and bylaw and police officers will be enforcing all relevant laws, he said.