T.O. RAVE CRACKDOWN

City To Use Safety Standards To Clean Up Parties

Toronto's top enforcement official yesterday promised to help rave party
promoters clean up their act.

And he warned those who don't will be put out of business.

James Ridge, Toronto's executive director of municipal licensing and
standards, told The Saturday Sun the city wants safety standards at the
all-night dance parties brought in line with those found at other major
events.

"We've been working with rave promoters to set down guidelines that
ultimately we hope will become bylaws," Ridge said.

"We're trying to put some standards in place to ensure raves will be legal
and safe in the future."

He said many rave promoters currently ignore fire, building and health code
standards, hosting wild drug and dance parties in abandoned buildings and
underground garages.

Four people overdosed on Ecstasy, a popular designer drug, at a downtown
rave earlier this month. Police said it had been laced with rat poison.

And a 21-year-old Ryerson student died of a drug overdose in October at a
rave held in an underground parking garage of a west-end factory.

Ridge said the city will no longer tolerate those kinds of events.

"We'll be dealing very aggressively with individuals who don't meet the
minimum health and safety guidelines or continue to hold raves in unsafe
buildings," he said.

Besides charging rave organizers, provincial officials have said they are
considering sanctions against property owners who allow unfit facilities to
be used for partying.

That tactic was used effectively in a 1997 campaign to crack down on
illegal boozecans operating in the city, officials say.