Unsanctioned street parties in London occur several times every year, during events such as Homecoming and Frosh week. But London’s Chief Municipal Law Enforcement Officer, Orest Katolyk, is discouraging students from attending.
Video footage by Justin Zhang and Western TV, 2018
Katolyk worries that if these parties continue to get larger, party-goers will be at serious risk. “At some point, if these parties continue to grow as they have been growing, there will be a fatality because of the over-abuse of alcohol and/or drugs, and some of the antics that youth are portraying at these events,” he says.
Western TV, 2018
He urges these party-goers to consider another perspective. “Think about where your parents live, where your grandparents live, and where your friends live,” he says. “If that event was held in front of their house, and they needed an emergency response to their home, and it was restricted because you had thousands of people on your street… Just sit back and think about that for a second. Maybe that’s the culture shift that needs to happen.”
Katolyk says that city staff are working with Western administration to find the best approach to these unsanctioned street parties.
“What we’ve realized over the years is that there’s not just one magic wand solution that will solve the issue,” he says. “From the city’s perspective, we’re looking at the public nuisance by-law. Western administration is looking at their Code of Conduct, and Western Student Union is looking at alternative programming. Once that occurs in April, then we move into operations mode.”
With this approach, Katolyk hopes to create safer ways for students and youth to celebrate. “Who doesn’t want to have a good time?” he says. “The problem is, you don’t have that good time on a street where people reside, where you’re negatively impacting both their quality of life and potentially their safety, because of the volume of people on the street.”
