POLICE, PROVINCE TO TARGET RAVES

Meeting Comes On Heels Of Shootings At After-Hours Clubs

Key provincial government officials and law enforcement agencies are to
meet next week to draft strategies to help police combat problems with rave
parties at after-hours clubs.

The parties take place on a regular basis most nights of the week and
police are encountering drug trafficking, weapons and assaults, said
Superintendent Aiden Maher, head of 52 Division in downtown Toronto.

"The community at large is very concerned," he said. "They feel their
neighbourhoods are unsafe. There is so much gunfire."

In the past three weeks, two bouncers have been shot to death after
attempting to eject patrons.

Several other people have been wounded, police said.

Maher said a committee set up in his police division has been studying the
problems caused by raves for the past six months and investigators have
already used a number of strategies to control activities at after-hours
clubs.

Following a raid late last year at the Ministry Nite Club on Mercer St.,
plainclothes detectives from 52 Division charged both the club and the
operator of the rave party for violating liquor licence regulations.

They also seized $13,700 in profits and charged the operators with
possessing proceeds from the commission of an offence under the Liquor
Licence Act.

A justice of the peace registered a conviction and, in addition to imposing
a $2,000 fine, ordered the accused to forfeit $2,700 to the province from
the profits and put the remaining $11,000 in trust pending a hearing to
determine if the money should be seized by the government or returned to
the club owner.

Maher described it as a precedent-setting conviction that sends a clear
message to nightclub owners that they must operate within the law or risk
the consequences.

"The key to this is going after the owner," he said. "The person who owns
the property should take responsibility."

Maher said legislation is needed to allow the police to go after landlords
who rent out properties for rave parties.

Both Consumer Minister Bob Runciman and David Tsubouchi, the province's
solicitor-general, are scheduled to attend next week's meeting.

Runciman announced late last year that plans were being developed to host a
meeting to map out strategies to halt rave parties.

At the time, intelligence investigators expressed concern about the
proliferation of designer drugs, such as Ecstasy, at these parties.

There have been at least three deaths from drug overdoses at raves since
last July, police said.