REGULATING RAVES

Re: Council committee cracks down on 'dangerous' raves, July 23.

I am surprised the Citizen would print such unabashed sensationalism.

I attended the committee meeting at city hall, representing the concerns of
the Ottawa Promoters Association, a group that has been working with the
city and the police since November 2000 in drafting a bylaw regulating
all-night dance parties.

The meeting was positive. Council members were constructive in their
comments. Indeed, they even commended the promoters for participating in
the process.

Your reporter failed to speak to anyone from the Ottawa Promoters
Association (OPA), Ottawans Actively Teaching Safety (OATS), or any of the
youths attending the meeting. Instead, he chose to focus on the testimony
of a youth intervention co-ordinator from the Ottawa police. While I admire
and fully support the efforts of the co-ordinator, some of her claims might
be difficult to support with available scientific and statistical research.

You owe it to your readership to do a balanced article on all night-dance
parties and why they have been so popular, not only in Ottawa, but in the
rest of world for the past decade. These parties are about electronic
music, dancing and friendship.

Difficulties experienced at these parties are no different, statistically,
than those experienced at nightclubs, concerts and festivals. Yet the media
continue to sensationalize every rare and unfortunate death due to the drug
Ecstasy. At the same time, they fail to report deaths due to alcohol abuse,
which sadly occur with a far greater frequency.

The OPA and OATS look forward to continued co-operation with the city.
Instead of merely "tolerating" raves as Councillor Diane Deans suggested,
the city should be requesting that representatives from these two
organizations volunteer to work with the city to develop and execute a
community action strategy. The goal should be to provide teens and parents
with information on issues such as drug use in a non-judgmental manner, in
an effort to avoid harm and reduce risk. Such a strategy would produce
measurable results.

Roy Chartier,

Founder, Ottawa Promoters Association