POLITICAL RANTS ... AND RAVES

It's getting so I'm afraid to answer the door. It could be Julian Fantino
come to chat about police policies. He's everywhere!

There hasn't been a gabby police chief like this since the unified force
began in 1957. It's great, too. Fantino said in his first days more than
some chiefs said in their careers. It does highlight, however, that safe
city concerns have produced something close to a chief's cult, that the
media and councillors have elevated his post to something approaching the
new status of the mayor where Mel is perceived as greater than the 57
councillors combined.

So when Fantino with his flat plainspeak moved against raves, and persuaded
Mel Lastman with his inflammatory rhetoric to change, they became a
powerful team. Mel switched from his sensible approach of keeping raves and
their drug scene out in the open, where on-duty and paid-duty cops and
security guards can impose some control, rather than drive them underground
where dehydrated kids can ruin bodies - or even die.

So councillors banned raves at Exhibition Place or on other city-owned land
until August and more reports from Fantino and others. That 32-18 vote came
despite the general view of ordinary parents, and not just their kids, that
it's a mistake.

I don't say that casually. I've asked everyone, family, neighbours,
readers, strangers and the guy who edits this column, and grumbles about
the length, because I thought my view was important. After all, as Canadian
National Exhibition president and one of the 13 governors of our landlord,
Exhibition Place, I presumed I would get a crack at this before council
imposed its will. I sided with Joe Pantalone, head of Exhibition Place, who
had the appropriate position of let's have raves at the Ex, although we
have to prevent that provocative drug-laced advertising. But the governors
haven't debated this and won't until May 26. And Pantalone, facing the
dynamic duo, seconded Mel's ban.

Tangled Verbiage

It's fashionable to condemn council's debates. Heaven knows there's often a
banquet of stunts and tangled verbiage for critics to dine on. Yet I
thought Wednesday that many councillors gave us hour after hour of
interesting discussion. They also used the bear pit for another honourable
reason, to inform the public about facts and impacts, and also to educate
20 colleagues who sometimes show few life signs.

So we had a vigorous argument before council sensibly voted 38-12 to keep
the good lower parts of an art deco building at 100 Adelaide St. W. and
allow them to be integrated into a 41-storey tower. (I doubt most people or
politicians had even known about the Concourse Building before all this.)

Then council worried about what it could do to keep the Asian longhorned
beetle from city trees. Since we've lost all our magnificent elms, and
since decades ago the American chestnuts were wiped out, no one is taking
lightly the threat to our heritage of maples triggered by larva inside wood
imported from China. Here's where councillors turned teachers, pleading for
publicity.

Youth Culture

Councillors like Olivia Chow also tried to bring an historic perspective to
raves, lecturing us on evolving youth culture where yesterday's evil is
routine today.

Not only are councillors shaky pop historians, the argument doesn't work.
Raves - where participants argue 30% are on drugs and the cops argue 80% -
are greater threats to vulnerable kids than when you and I packed a mickey
to a dance, when cutting loose didn't mean falling in vomit in a garage and
spinning in an Ecstasy-crazed fit. It's not a toke at a rock concert. Yet
this is the argument thrown at anyone who didn't live a cloistered life as
a teenager; that we're frowning on the latest version of what we used to
do. Nope, this dancing and music comes with drugs. Far more dangerous!

Chow brought up how rock 'n' roll was banned, how TV censored Elvis
Presley's gyrating hips, and how even this city banned the Barenaked
Ladies. Time for a reality check. It was only Ed Sullivan who had cameras
stay above Elvis' waist for the first Sunday shows. One of rock's appeals
was its alleged renegade status and it has got a rougher ride in bubblegum
movies made decades later than it did then. As for the Barenaked Ladies,
one city official who had never seen the then-unknown group decided by the
name alone it wasn't suitable to play in Nathan Phillips Square. Why?
Because of worry about politically correct leaders like Chow.

Yet she's right on this issue. Raves are not the problem, drug dealers are.
Raves are even peaceful compared to after-hours clubs. Unfortunately, one
question must now be asked. Is there really law and order in this city when
the police can't stop just one building for one night from being a haven
for drugs?