“Let’s have fun”: Waterloo students and neighbors divided into St. Patrick’s Mandate

In Waterloo there is a mixed reaction to an injury that allows the police to retain, arrest and accuse anyone who participates in unseen street parties in that city this weekend.

Awaiting a tradition in and around St. Patrick Day Thousand students go to the street in the university district of Waterloo to drink, spend and sometimes cause chaos and disorder.

The judicial order granted to the city by the Higher Court of Justice in Ontario will be in effect on Friday, March 14, at 12:00 until Monday, March 17, at 23:59 PM

“The organization attaches an accusation of criminal code to what was previously the shade regulation. Previously, you will be charged with a ticket. You can now be accused of an offense for violating a judicial order,” said Jen Davis, deputy chief for the Regional Police Service (WRPS).

Safety problems

Davis says the street parties around St. Patrick’s day are an increasing problem in Waterloo and that the ordinance will help the police deal better.

“We have noticed a gradual growth of people participating in these events and we had to look for new and new solutions for how we could ensure public safety,” she said, adding in the past years that they have received numerous reports in the area in the past years.

“We had previous reports on large crowds that sit on garage roofs, several incidents of evils such as the furniture that was set on the roads,” she said.

The area of ​​the university district includes the Northdale and MacGregor neighborhoods, the southern portion of the Sugarbush neighborhood and most of the Uptown neighborhood. It also includes Waterloo Park.

Kae Elgie, a member of the Board of Directors of the MacGregor-Albert community association, says that the street parties have significantly disturbed their neighborhood in the past years.

“We would see that people are quite flagrant. People would come to pee on our courts and throw the garbage. They would be quite disrespectful,” she said.

Elgie says that the MacGregor-Albert community association does not want to completely stop the parties in the university district.

“We are not against the party. We just want people to do it safely and have a certain respect for those who have young children and parents,” she said.

Cost for the city

According to a court decision issued by Judge Micheal Gibson in the court of superior justice in Ontario, the city spent about $ 105,000 responding to the street parties. He added that the municipal execution services have spent over $ 940,000 to address these unseen meetings in 2017.

Gibson justice says that the order does not violate the state’s right to the freedom of the peaceful assembly or to the freedom of association.

–Charter rights are not absolute or unskilled; The Charter does not provide any person the legal right to illegally step on the legal rights of others, to threaten public safety or to ignore the legal municipal contraction, ”he said.

An annual tradition

For many students at Wilfrid Laurer University, street parties are a tradition of St. Patrick Day.

“St. Patrick’s Day at Waterloo is one of the things that do it special. I think it is something we should value instead of trying to close it,” said Robert Chadney.

“I would like to let us have fun,” said Ben Smith.

Jennifer Hurtado is skeptical if the ordinance can stop all the street parties.

“I think they will spend any more. I don’t know how they will implement it,” she said.

Davis says the ordinance allows the police to adopt a more proactive and preventive approach.

“We can educate young people as they begin to participate and gather to say that the ordinance is in force,” she said.

“We can encourage them at that time to disperse,” she continued.

Davis added that, depending on the response from the meeting of the people, the officers and would use discretion to decide whether to start arresting people in violation of the order.

Reflection of Irish culture

Sue Nally, director of the Irish Festival of Real Life, says that the members of the Commission have mixed feelings about the ordinance.

“What about us is that people feel that they are reflected on the Irish culture,” she said.

Nally added that the parties are a nice way to see the Irish culture represented in the community.

“I like to see all these students wearing green. There is something very exciting about people who say we are Irish for that day,” she said.

Nally says he wants Waterloo to adopt a new approach to manage parties. She would like more Irish culture incorporated in street parties.

“We would like to be more intentionally about how they play,” she said. “How do we work with what is already happening and not let it reflect on the culture and not let the neighbors affect?” She added.

Davis argues that the goal of the ordinance is not only to arrest and accuse people, but to stop the parties before they occur.

“The biggest priority for us is the education and communication of the message to students and others in the defined area,” she said.

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