MAN COLLAPSED AT RAVE, INQUEST TOLD

'We'Re Not Here To Preach,' Coroner's Counsel Says

Allan Ho lay on his back on the blacktop of a garbage-strewn
underground parking garage, his eyes closed, his jaw and fists clenched.

Around him, thousands of young people sweated in the heat of the soggy
underground as they danced to the pulsating beat of techno music.

That was the scene painted by a friend of the 20-year-old man, as the
first day of a coroner's inquest probing Ho's death on Oct. 10, 1999,
got an inside look at rave culture.

"I just kept yelling his name, and after a few minutes one of the
bouncers came over and said, 'Take him outside because he's
overdosing,' " Henry Wong, a 21-year-old Ryerson Polytechnic
University student, recalled yesterday.

Ho, a Ryerson business management student, died in hospital about 15
hours after being found overdosing on ecstasy, a drug that's become
synonymous with the rave scene.

Besides answering the "five questions" - who died, how, where, when
and by what means - the three-woman, two-man jury is also looking at
the broader issue of electronic dance parties and the risks that
sometimes accompany raves.

But it's not the jury's job to pass judgment on the thriving
subculture, they were told.

"We don't call evidence to be a referendum on raves. We're not here to
preach. We're here because Mr. Ho has died," coroner's counsel Paul
McDermott said during his opening statement.

"The public is concerned about it. The public wants to prevent these
kinds of deaths."

Wong told the inquest that ecstasy is a common drug at raves, but he'd
never heard Ho say he had used it, despite the fact that his friend
was a regular party-goer.

He said he knew there were drugs being used at the rave parties he
attended.

"You can tell when you're inside. You can hear people talking about
it, and they'll come up to you and say, 'Hi, I'm on ecstasy,' " he
said.

Detective Steve Correia, a Toronto police officer who arrived at the
Alliance Ave. party shortly after Ho was taken to hospital, said he
walked through the west-end underground garage without realizing what
sort of building he was in.

"When I was in there the first time, I couldn't see that it was a
garage. I thought it was a basement. I couldn't see the lines on the
floor," he told presiding coroner Dr. Barry McLellan.

Using a videotape taken by police on Oct. 10 at about 8:15 a.m. while
the rave was still under way, Correia set the scene in the garage -
pointing out the garbage on the floors, the portable toilets, and the
stands selling juice and water.

In the video, people can be seen sitting and resting on the floors of
the garage, as dancers move in the background.

Correia told the inquest that he spoke with Chris Samojlenko, the
rave's promoter, that morning.

The officer said Samojlenko told him 3,500 tickets had been sold for
$25 each for the party, which began the night of Oct. 9, and that he
was expecting to make about $20,000.

Ho's family does not have standing at the inquest, but his mother sat
quietly through yesterday's proceedings.

There are several groups with standing, including Samojlenko, the City
of Toronto, Ticketmaster, and Chief Julian Fantino and the Toronto
Police Service. Two groups representing those involved in the rave
scene - the Toronto Dance Safety Committee and the Toronto Harm
Reduction Task Force - also have standing.

The inquest continues today.