stargurl

Fire code violations at rave bring company $10,000 fine - Peter Small
The Toronto Star, August 17, 2001. Greater Toronto section.

A rave-promotion company has been fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to committing fire code violations at the all-night bash where Ryerson student Allen Ho died of an ecstasy overdose.

``The breaches were truly grievous, endangering 3,000 members of our most precious resource, our children,'' justice of the peace Teresa Jewitt said before imposing sentence yesterday.

The prosecutor, City of Toronto lawyer Geoff Uyeno, consented to staying charges against rave promoter Chris Samojlenko - a director of the company and leading deejay - after his lawyer argued that the court had lost jurisdiction over the case against him personally.

Uyeno had asked the justice of the peace to impose a $15,000 fine against the company, arguing that it would deter other promoters from holding overcrowded raves in ``non-approved venues.''

Gross sales for the event, which attracted between 3,000 and 3,500 partiers, were $29,582, he told the hearing at old city hall.

The venue chosen by 1135068 Ontario Ltd., doing business as Nocturnal Music, for the Oct. 10, 1999 rave was an underground parking garage at 501 Alliance Ave., near Jane St. and Eglinton Ave. W.

Among the charges the company pleaded guilty to was ``permitting activities which create a hazard and which are not allowed for in the original design of the building.''

The violations concern overcrowding, a lack of exits and not having proper emergency lighting for the size of crowd the event attracted.

A fire captain had said only 556 people could be safely evacuated in an emergency, Uyeno said.

Ho, a 20-year-old business management student at Ryerson Polytechnic University, collapsed at the all-night dance after taking ecstasy - also known as MDMA - an amphetamine-based stimulant and hallucinogen.

An inquest jury looking into his death recommended last year that Toronto create safe venues and the province enact tough new laws to curb drug use at raves.

Yesterday, Jewitt put the company on probation for 18 months, during which time it must only hold raves in appropriate venues and give the fire department at least 72 hours' notice of its intention to do so.

Ho's death was completely unrelated to the fire code violations, Paul Burstein, the company's lawyer, told Jewitt.

The company is always concerned about the health and safety of its patrons and it put a limit on the number of tickets for the 1999 rave for that reason, Burstein said.

But, he acknowledged, ``the corporation made a mistake.''

Outside court, Burstein said he believed the charges against his client and the company were politically motivated.

Otherwise, why did the fire department not charge another rave promoter who held an event at the same venue a week or two earlier with about 2,000 patrons, and why didn't it charge the property owner, who knowingly allowed both events, Burstein asked.

Samojlenko had been told by the property manager's agent that the building was up to code, he said.

Toronto fire Deputy Chief Terry Boyko denied that the rave promoter was targeted for political reasons, but he could not immediately comment on why the other rave operator or the venue owner had not been charged as well.

``We are not anti-rave, but we want to make sure these are held in safe locations and that we've had the opportunity to pre-inspect the site,'' he said.

For instance, fire officials want to check that exits are appropriately marked, and not blocked, and that exit doors do not have chains on them, Boyko said. ``We can't tolerate these large occupations in places that aren't appropriate.''

stargurl

I'm sorry to hear about the fines & probation =(

Nubbie

Just thought I would point this section out to the people.

Sorry to hear about the fine Frolic.


-=Nub=-

Little Turbo

just read it todah

verry crappy

Jon_

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I swear!

~^^OpTiMuS pRiMe^^~

Caught in the politics. They've got to point the finger at someone, and make an example. Sorry it was you, Chris.

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If it's not fun, why do it?
Fil
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