VURBan Legends

Awake the Deadmonton


Publication title: Vue Weekly
Page: 49
Publication date: August 23, 2001
Document type: Opinion
Article Author: Dave Johnston 
Transcribed by: MW

As I write this, members of the Executive Council are sitting down to review the report made by the City of Edmonton's Planning and Development department concerning Bylaw 12610, the "rave bylaw." As deadline looms, I'm unable to attend the meeting, nor will I know its outcome until after the paper has hit the press.

This doesn't mean that I can't make some speculation based on a perusal of the department's report summary. In it, the department states that since the lune 26 city council meeting, they claim to have seen improvements in the clubs and one-off events. The city believes that they have a better understand of how clubs and one-off events impact the surrounding community. They claim that club operators and promoters have committed to the idea of having their responsibility of their patrons' action extend beyond the walls of their events. They state that a club on 118 Street that operated without proper licensing was shut down, and they believe that there is a general understanding that new rules will have a positive result.

Unfortunately, the presentation has two attachments. One is the amended version of Bylaw 12610, which prohibits any event from progressing past 3 a.m. and forces anyone under the age of 18 to vacate the location of any dance event at midnight. The other is the original bylaw before mayor Bill Smith and councilors Noce, Bolstad and Thiele slapped on their draconian changes.

The historic Sunday afternoon rally, as well as the denouncements made by media outlets such as Vue Weekly and the Edmonton journal, not to mention the public outcry, forced council to re-evaluate the situation. Noce went on the record to say that perhaps the boundaries were set a little too harshly and wanted the bylaw given another review.

With the waste of the Worlds' behind us, and a huge $100,000 allotment already spent on Bylaw 12610, it's easy to see that city council wants this issue to be dealt with quickly and quietly. Alter all, there's an election coming and everyone wants to look like a hero so they can plant their asses back in the chamber for another few years of sighing and heavy thought about when the next waste of taxpayers' dollars can be dished out. Another worthless track and field event in 2007 that our own national team wouldn't be worthy of competing in? Awesome! Thumbs up! Way to go, Deadmonton! Let's keep it quiet!

It's my opinion that our civic leadership, as a whole, has been delusional, wasteful and unrealistic when it comes to addressing the changes in 21st century society. Has the zero tolerance policy adopted by the police apparently given us the legendary Whyte Avenue Riot and a double dozen foot officers taking down a malignant jaywalker? Granted, we've got some boners walking around this town, and they need to be put down, but we can't have a stealth version of martial law controlling our presumed responsible society. I'm sure there are members of the police service who think this way. I hope so.

And I hope that rational minds will prevail in the case of Bylaw 12610. If the issue of drugs is a problem, curfews will not solve it. Nor will taking away our freedom to assemble peacefully. Nor will the censorship of a particular music or otherwise legal activity like dancing or DJing. People need their sleep, but others need their fun as well. We can have it both ways, and the past few months have proven that.

Thankfully, there is another attachment to this report. At the lune 26 council meeting, mayor Smith expressed his astonishment that during the entire course of the bylaw drafting council never submitted examples of what other cities had tried to do to deal with their individual situations. Like him, I was flabbergasted—I knew the subcommittee had discussed them at length, but the fact that this was never brought up at Executive Council is an idiotic oversight. So, finally, Planning and Development have included documentation of what Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary have done in the past year.

Hopefully, Executive Council will bear this evidence in mind when they send Bylaw 12610 back to city council for a vote in September. And hopefully they will send the original version. We were called Deadmonton once in the world arena, and we fought back. It's about time our civic leaders proved they were willing to keep up the fight. And if they don't, there's always the election. Your vote counts—and they're scared shitless by that fact.