Queen’s drops homecoming
after campus violence The Canadian Press
KINGSTON— Queen’s University
has cancelled its traditional
fall homecoming for the next two
years, citing an “unprecedented
number’’ of charges, violent incidents
and injuries at this year’s
event.
The event will be replaced by a
“homecoming-styled’’ reunion in
May 2009 and 2010, said a letter
sent to the university’s alumni.
The problems stem from an informal
street party whose timing
coincides with the fall homecoming
but is not sanctioned by
the university.
During the Saturday of the recent
September homecoming
weekend, about 8,000 mostly
drunken revellers took over Aberdeen
Street in the university’s
student village. An estimated 300
police officers, including four
riot squads,were on hand to
maintain order. The final police
tab was about $300,000.
Tom Williams, the school’s
principal and vice-chancellor,
said in the letter that university
staff, students and police have
been working to contain the
“volatile’’ situation.
“Despite our best efforts, the
situation has worsened,’’Williams
wrote.The most recent gathering
was “the largest yet and resulted
in an unprecedented number of
police charges, arrests, violent incidents
and injuries.”
Police made nearly 140 arrests
this year and laid almost 700
liquor charges.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Halloween assault shocks Samaritans
Chronicle Staff
By Greg MacDonald
News
Nov 12, 2008
Halloween turned into a real horror for two university students after they were beaten up on University Avenue.
Jonathan Volpe, who attends the University of Guelph, and his girlfriend, Wilfrid Laurier University student Anna Spehr, were walking home from a party when they got caught in the middle of an altercation.
The two were returning home from a Halloween party and were near McGinnis Frontrow when they found themselves between two groups of people.
“There were a couple of guys in front of us and six behind,” Volpe said. The two groups started yelling at each other and soon the six men attacked one person in the first group.
“They were kicking and punching him,” Volpe said. “They were relentless.”
He and Spehr interjected themselves into the situation and Volpe helped the injured man up.
“Why are you doing this?” Spehr asked the group.
“You want some b---h?” one responded, and then punched her in the face.
That’s when Volpe got involved in the fight.
“I pushed the guy into the street and they started beating me,” he said. “I just put my hand up in front of my face and tried to block it.”
He ended up with a black eye and some bruising, while Spehr left the incident with a sore face.
Volpe was angered by the event and hasn’t been able to shake that feeling since.
“These guys have clearly done this before and may strike again. I was lucky enough to avoid serious injuries but these guys must be punished,” he said.
“Who hits a girl and beats people in small groups like that for absolutely no reason?”
Now Volpe is asking any witnesses to the event to go to the police so that the offenders can be brought to justice.
“There were people around, I’m surprised no one said anything or tried to help,” he said.
Spehr, who lives at Westmount Road and University, has never seen anything like this during her time in Waterloo.
She couldn’t believe it after she got hit.
“I was in shock,” she said. “I was just standing there thinking ‘are you kidding me?’”
The 21-year-old has felt comfortable walking home along University but said she might reconsider it from now on.
“I don’t want to live in fear,” she said. “I guess I’ll just take a taxi next time.”
An incident like this one is fairly uncommon in Waterloo, said Staff Sgt. Warren Haasnoot of the Waterloo regional police.
“Periodically with the high concentration of bars and over-consumption of alcohol, groups get involved in disputes but generally it is not an issue,” he said.
Halloween can see a spike in calls, but they are not necessarily serious ones, he said.
Haasnoot recommends staying back if you come upon a serious altercation.
“It’s best to call the police,” he said. “There’s a risk to getting involved. Call 911.”
Chronicle Staff
By Greg MacDonald
News
Nov 12, 2008
Halloween turned into a real horror for two university students after they were beaten up on University Avenue.
Jonathan Volpe, who attends the University of Guelph, and his girlfriend, Wilfrid Laurier University student Anna Spehr, were walking home from a party when they got caught in the middle of an altercation.
The two were returning home from a Halloween party and were near McGinnis Frontrow when they found themselves between two groups of people.
“There were a couple of guys in front of us and six behind,” Volpe said. The two groups started yelling at each other and soon the six men attacked one person in the first group.
“They were kicking and punching him,” Volpe said. “They were relentless.”
He and Spehr interjected themselves into the situation and Volpe helped the injured man up.
“Why are you doing this?” Spehr asked the group.
“You want some b---h?” one responded, and then punched her in the face.
That’s when Volpe got involved in the fight.
“I pushed the guy into the street and they started beating me,” he said. “I just put my hand up in front of my face and tried to block it.”
He ended up with a black eye and some bruising, while Spehr left the incident with a sore face.
Volpe was angered by the event and hasn’t been able to shake that feeling since.
“These guys have clearly done this before and may strike again. I was lucky enough to avoid serious injuries but these guys must be punished,” he said.
“Who hits a girl and beats people in small groups like that for absolutely no reason?”
Now Volpe is asking any witnesses to the event to go to the police so that the offenders can be brought to justice.
“There were people around, I’m surprised no one said anything or tried to help,” he said.
Spehr, who lives at Westmount Road and University, has never seen anything like this during her time in Waterloo.
She couldn’t believe it after she got hit.
“I was in shock,” she said. “I was just standing there thinking ‘are you kidding me?’”
The 21-year-old has felt comfortable walking home along University but said she might reconsider it from now on.
“I don’t want to live in fear,” she said. “I guess I’ll just take a taxi next time.”
An incident like this one is fairly uncommon in Waterloo, said Staff Sgt. Warren Haasnoot of the Waterloo regional police.
“Periodically with the high concentration of bars and over-consumption of alcohol, groups get involved in disputes but generally it is not an issue,” he said.
Halloween can see a spike in calls, but they are not necessarily serious ones, he said.
Haasnoot recommends staying back if you come upon a serious altercation.
“It’s best to call the police,” he said. “There’s a risk to getting involved. Call 911.”
Article from the Waterlo Chronicle
November 12th 2008
Irresponsible students should be charged for crimes
Letters
Nov 12, 2008
Print This Article Tell a friend
Students have been getting away with too much.
There seems to be a "hands off the students" policy at the City of Waterloo that allows them a free hand to wreck property, break bylaws and commit crimes (which they probably think are only pranks).
For example, every weekend the safety fence on Ezra Avenue, erected to keep safe the site of the new student housing project, is knocked down.
This is not a prank. It is a crime to remove signs or fences or plastic cones that delineate dangerous territory.
Students routinely knock over federal mailboxes which is a crime.
Other offences include:
• building huge fires in driveways and backyards that endanger surrounding houses
• vandalizing cars, houses, signs and other private property
• urinating on people's gardens and property
• breaking noise bylaws by partying and screaming until 3 a. m.
• drinking on public property such as sidewalks and streets
• coming home from Waterloo pubs and parties drunk and kicking everybody's garbage pails and recycling boxes into the middle of the street.
Just walk down Ezra or Seagram Drive any Tuesday morning — it’s a total pig pen.
What is this attitude that they are not subject to the laws of the land? If an engineering student is caught and gets a criminal record, he/she cannot join the profession. Tough luck, if you do the crime, you do the time — and part of "the time" is to have a criminal record and suffer the consequences, like not being able to travel to certain countries or join a profession. Too bad — they should have thought of that before being an idiot.
When questioned recently a student said that he thought this was a "student area."
Hello — there is no such thing as a "student area" where it's OK to flaunt the law.
Owners, residents, tenants and responsible students are sick and tired of being harassed by bunches of drunks doing whatever comes into their small minds.
When complaints are made, the police claim they cannot catch them at their shenanigans. Well, don't come up in a cruiser; instead, patrol on foot.
It doesn't take a detective to catch a gaggle of stupefied drunks stumbling home at 2 a. m., smashing, vandalizing and yelling at the top of their lungs.
Catch them, charge them, process them and give criminal records to those of them who deserve it.
It's what we pay for.
Donald A. Fraser , Waterloo
November 12th 2008
Irresponsible students should be charged for crimes
Letters
Nov 12, 2008
Print This Article Tell a friend
Students have been getting away with too much.
There seems to be a "hands off the students" policy at the City of Waterloo that allows them a free hand to wreck property, break bylaws and commit crimes (which they probably think are only pranks).
For example, every weekend the safety fence on Ezra Avenue, erected to keep safe the site of the new student housing project, is knocked down.
This is not a prank. It is a crime to remove signs or fences or plastic cones that delineate dangerous territory.
Students routinely knock over federal mailboxes which is a crime.
Other offences include:
• building huge fires in driveways and backyards that endanger surrounding houses
• vandalizing cars, houses, signs and other private property
• urinating on people's gardens and property
• breaking noise bylaws by partying and screaming until 3 a. m.
• drinking on public property such as sidewalks and streets
• coming home from Waterloo pubs and parties drunk and kicking everybody's garbage pails and recycling boxes into the middle of the street.
Just walk down Ezra or Seagram Drive any Tuesday morning — it’s a total pig pen.
What is this attitude that they are not subject to the laws of the land? If an engineering student is caught and gets a criminal record, he/she cannot join the profession. Tough luck, if you do the crime, you do the time — and part of "the time" is to have a criminal record and suffer the consequences, like not being able to travel to certain countries or join a profession. Too bad — they should have thought of that before being an idiot.
When questioned recently a student said that he thought this was a "student area."
Hello — there is no such thing as a "student area" where it's OK to flaunt the law.
Owners, residents, tenants and responsible students are sick and tired of being harassed by bunches of drunks doing whatever comes into their small minds.
When complaints are made, the police claim they cannot catch them at their shenanigans. Well, don't come up in a cruiser; instead, patrol on foot.
It doesn't take a detective to catch a gaggle of stupefied drunks stumbling home at 2 a. m., smashing, vandalizing and yelling at the top of their lungs.
Catch them, charge them, process them and give criminal records to those of them who deserve it.
It's what we pay for.
Donald A. Fraser , Waterloo
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