Saanich police say they will set up “proactive” road blocks and increase foot patrols at the University of Victoria on weekends to clamp down on a rash of large drunken parties that they say border on riots.
Mass gatherings outside UVic residences since the start of classes in September are drawing more than 1,000 people and are marred with fights and violence, property damage and “disorderly conduct that verge on the brink of rioting,” police said.
Police said they will be enforcing the Trespass Act, Liquor Control and Licensing Act, “and any other statute that applies to those who are not lawfully permitted on campus and in contravention of these and other relevant laws.”
Over the Halloween weekend, hundreds gathered in a parking lot near campus residences. Some partiers set off fireworks, pointing the explosives into the crowd. Police and campus security were overrun as fights broke out, officers in a vehicle were “mobbed” and several people had to be treated for injuries, according to Saanich police.
Police spokesman Markus Anastasiades said Monday that “people are so intoxicated, they weren’t able to care for themselves.”
The gatherings have been happening virtually every weekend since classes started in September, police said.
Police and university officials say many of those involved are not students, or are students who don’t live in campus housing, and the gatherings are “unauthorized and unlawful.”
Karen Johnston, associate director of public affairs at UVic, said students found to be violating the university’s misconduct policy could be subject to a range of sanctions, including eviction from residences, making restitution for damaged property and limited or permanent suspensions from UVic.
Saanich police said officers assigned to UVic duties are concerned that the violence and “chaos” is escalating each weekend. “They fear that someone will get seriously hurt and that it is in the public’s interest that these unlawful gatherings no longer occur,” said police.
Some students say they no longer feel safe on campus. A student who supplied the Times Colonist with a video of the large, drunken mob lighting fireworks and throwing pumpkins from rooftops Saturday night said she feels unsafe in her residence suite. “It’s just a matter of time before someone dies,” the student said.
Another student who did not want to be named said Halloween weekend was a nightmare. “I was so stressed that even with earplugs that kept running out of batteries, I couldn’t relax,” she said in an email.
“I was so disappointed and angry at all the students, even some of the [UVic] community leaders that had zero care for anything else but themselves.”
The student, who said she lost her sister earlier this year to COVID-19, said seeing police cars and ambulances and hearing sirens all night “brought tears to my eyes that during [a] pandemic all these resources are being wasted for something so stupid.”
“Paramedics should not be called for [the] stupidity of a bunch of young students who have no clue what is happening around the world.”
An area resident who often walks her dogs near the residences said she went to see the fall colours on Sunday and came across the mess left after the Halloween gathering.
“I was mortified at the amount of garbage on the ground in the area,” she said. “I saw one lone man with a broom and a garbage bag … it was shocking. [I] thought an animal had gotten into the bins.”
A student reached out to Saanich police in September, saying she no longer feels safe on campus and the stress is building.
“I can never sleep at night. I have called twice since I moved in here, but it is every weekend and I don’t know what else to do,” the student said in a email. “I hope my car, which is in the middle of this huge wild crowd, is safe, too. Why [can] this not be stopped? I know it bothers my neighbours, too. It is really distressing.”
Saanich police said the department will work with UVic’s security and senior management to end the gatherings, which put everyone at serious risk.
