COUNCIL PUTS TEMPORARY BAN ON CITY-RUN RAVES

Minority warn that city's reversal could increase drug use

A badly divided Toronto council yesterday took the first step toward
banning city-sanctioned raves.

But the temporary suspension of the police-supervised, all-night dance
parties came amid warnings it will drive the events underground and
make young people easier prey for drug dealers.

"I don't think it's the responsible thing to do," Olivia Chow, a
Downtown councillor, said of the mayor's controversial push to outlaw
legal raves at Exhibition Place. "We've taken a step in the wrong
direction," she added.

Councillors actually came very close to going the other way and
rejecting Mel Lastman's motion that "all [municipal] agencies, boards,
commissions and departments immediately suspend the leasing of any
city-owned facility for the purpose of holding rave parties."

Ms. Chow had called for that resolution to be delayed until after a
coroner's inquest into the illegal rave-related death of Allen Ho -- a
Ryerson University student who died a few day short of his 21st
birthday. But the councillor's deferral motion was defeated by a
single vote.

"I think that the inquest will give recommendations that will be very
comprehensive," Ms. Chow maintained.

Mr. Ho died from an overdose of the drug Ecstasy about 15 hours after
he collapsed at a rave in the underground garage of a west-end
warehouse. The investigation of his death began this week.

The closeness of the vote on her motion gave Ms. Chow hope the
suspension of raves at Exhibition Place could be lifted in August when
council expects to get a full report from Julian Fantino, the chief of
police, on "a course of action for the control and eradication of
illegal drugs" at such events.

"Hopefully, by that time, council will do the right thing," Ms. Chow
said yesterday.

But the mayor, who wholeheartedly supported the Safe Rave Protocol
that councillors approved unanimously last December in order to clear
the way for supervised dance parties at Exhibition Place, said he no
longer wants any part of the events.

"I didn't know what a rave party was," Mr. Lastman said yesterday to
excuse his backing of the protocol six months ago.

"I was definitely wrong when I went along with them," he added. "With
the police there, I didn't think there'd be drugs.

"When people take this Ecstasy, they go nuts," the mayor
claimed.

The police chief told councillors his department has "applied the
spirit of the protocol in policing these events," but doesn't have the
manpower to adequately supervise dances that can attract more than
7,000 people.

But Sandra Bussin said the Safe Rave Protocol is a new policy that has
only been in place for a few supervised parties this year.

"You haven't given it time," she told the police chief.

But the mayor said by the time Chief Fantino presents his report in
August,"he'll show you what a rave party really is."