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Investigations continue after student parties

IAN FAIRCLOUGH THE CHRONICLE HERALD ifairclough@herald.ca @iancfairclough

Feces, fireworks and urine.

Those are among the complaints of residents after Saturday night’s mass Dalhousie University student gathering-turned riot in a Halifax neighbourhood.

Halifax Regional Police are still tallying tickets, charges and injuries after between 3,000 and 4,000 students caused havoc in the area of Preston, Jennings and Larch streets and Jubilee Road. The area is a mix of private residences, rental homes occupied by non-students, and homes that have been chopped up into rental units for students.

Area resident Caitlin Lees has lived in the area for a number of years, and said she “quite happily” lives in a student community.

“I love having students for neighbours, but this is the one time of the year I hate it,” she said. “And it’s horrible.”

The issue has only come up in the past four years, she said.

There are students who live next door and are great neighbours, Lees said, and will even babysit for her. But then there were the masses that arrived on Saturday.

In the afternoon, on Jennings Street, there were a number of house parties, including one that had a DJ and a sponsor and a yard full of people.

“That slowly dissipated over the course of the afternoon and was loud. We had people straying into our yard to try to use it as a toilet, so we spent a fair bit of time trying to tell students to go elsewhere.”

Later in the evening, people started to come back and congregate at the intersection of Larch Street and Jubilee Road, she said.

“That’s when things started to get ugly.”

She said there was a lot of noise, fireworks were set off and pointed at one of her neighbour’s home.

Fires were set in the street. In one video, a young man in a white t-shirt could be seen grabbing the wrists of a female police officer who was trying to deal with him.

Police cleared heavily intoxicated people from the area, only to see them cutting through backyards to return to the street, knocking down fences in the process. Fight broke out, and one person was stabbed.

'IT WAS A PRETTY DIFFICULT NIGHT'

People were using cocaine outside below Lees' bathroom window, and the noise from the chaos on the street kept her children from being able to sleep.

“It was a pretty difficult night, and I think quite frightening in a way for residents," she said. "You have people coming up onto your porch or into your yard, and it does feel a bit threatening, especially at night,

She said her biggest fear is that someone may die on her property and be found in the morning.

“When the rumours started going that someone had been stabbed, my heart really sank. It’s just quite a horrifying thing, and any other day of the year would not be fathomable in my neighbourhood.”

People set a fire in the street and pelted police with bottles and other objects.

PARTIES EXPECTED

Lees said residents know there will be parties in the area because there are students living there, but fires being set on the street is a whole different level.

She said she’s sure that there were people on the streets who were not Dalhousie students, even though it was marketed on social media as a university event.

Dalhousie had spent the past couple of weeks telling students that the event was not sanctioned or organized by Dalhousie and telling them not to take part. An Ontario company was part of the promotion of the event as a homecoming weekend gathering, with photos and videos posted to instagram.

Dalhousie’s vice-provost of student affairs, Rick Ezekiel, said because everything happened off-campus and was not a Dalhousie event, there is little the university can do about issuing sanctions against students involved because the student code of conduct doesn’t apply off the Dal property.

“We’re in a stage right now to debrief and communicate with our partners, to get a full picture of what unfolded on the weekend,” he said. “Clearly, things escalated to damaging and unacceptable behaviour, particularly at night. It was very destructive behaviour towards other people, towards (police), towards property.”

He said they want to work toward preventing and mitigating any future such episodes leading up to next year.

“I think what we’re all grappling with (is) how challenging this growing phenomena has been to address, not only in Halifax but in London, Ontario, Hamilton and now even Peterborough, and this coordinated national trend that is being fueled by social media and influencers who were encouraging unsanctioned gatherings across the country.”

He said his attention is on “how do we investigate and try to understand the members of our community who are involved in organizing or encouraging this behaviour. I think that’s an important first starting place to think about any role we might be able to play as far as accountability from the university perspective.”

UNIVERSITY FRUSTRATED

University president Deep Saini posted an open letter to the university community on Dal’s website Sunday.

The statement said, in part, that the university was frustrated by the “reckless behaviour and the organization of unsanctioned and illegal street parties near campus.”

Saini said the university was clear in two messages to students last month that organizing or attending unsanctioned and illegal street party “is unacceptable given the direct, disturbing and inexcusable impacts on our community and families living close to campus. This high-risk and destructive behaviour showed a complete disregard for laws promoting the safety and well-being of our surrounding neighbourhoods and included public intoxication and confrontations with the police.”

He said the activity is being promoted and idealized by the Instagram account for Canadian Party Life and its affiliates.

“As we have said in previous weeks, we are deeply concerned about this movement taking place across the country that forces communities and our partners to bear the brunt of this alarming trend without any sense of responsibility from the organizers and students engaged in these acts.”

POLICE STILL GATHERING INFORMATION

Halifax Regional Police spokesman Const. Nicolas Gagnon said police are still compiling information on the number of charges laid, arrests, and tickets issued.

“As it was a significant event, we are still gathering all the information in relation to the weekend’s events,” he said in an email. “I can confirm there are a number of criminal investigations that are ongoing, and dozens of summary offence tickets were issued.”

A number of officers were injured and treated for nonlife threatening injuries, he said, but he wouldn’t give specifics on the nature of the injuries.

He said police are talking with Dalhousie about the incidents.

The union representing Halifax Regional Police officers said something needs to be done to deal with the issue.

In a release late Monday afternoon, the Halifax Regional Police Association said police management, HRM council and Dalhousie “have to address the ever-growing problem of homecoming.”

President Sgt. Dean Stienburg said the association’s members faced a daunting task in trying to contain the crowd.

“While some students in attendance were simply there to enjoy the event, there were a significant number that crossed the line resulting in injuries, property damage, considerable disruption for residents of the area and serious risk to public safety,” he said. “To the residents around this event, the rank and file of the HRPA understand your frustration and safety concerns. We assure you that the officers attending did everything in their power to control the situation.”

However, the release said, there weren’t enough officers allocated to the area that night, and it was “impossible for our members to contain or shut it down.”

Officers who were there were able to provide safe passage out of the area for multiple injured people including the stabbing victim, extinguish fires lit by the crowd and provide some enforcement of the liquor control act, Steinburg said.

When multiple officers were injured trying to gain control of the crowd, more officers had to be called in from neighbouring districts to assist as the evening went on, and the RCMP were called to help cover off some of the areas that were left with reduced HRP coverage.

Steinburg said the homecoming event “continues to grow and has become a significant police and public safety issue. Planning and preparation needs to become much more robust to police this event. No longer can HRM/HRP management rely on calling in a few members with a light operational plan and a hope for the best approach.”

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2022-10-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

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