NOTAS SUELTAS SOBRE LAS RAZAS

Guvernment also managed to weather then-Mayor Mel Lastman’s Bill 73—the infamous “rave ban”—introduced by City Councillor Sandra Pupatello, which had been spurred by the drug-related death of twenty-year-old rave-goer Allan Ho in October of 1999 at a rave in an

26 _{Ibid at 83.}

27 _{There are a lot of popular sources that document the development of the rave scene and electronic dance music}

culture in Toronto during those years. Many of them disagree with each other on minor points such as the key figures involved, the most important events, and so on. But, for a sampling of these sources, see e.g. the excellent website The Commonic8r: A Chronological Trip Through the Golden Age of Raving in Toronto, online:

<www.thecommunic8r.com>; Denise Benson’s book on Toronto’s nightlife history, supra note 20.

28 _{Bill 73 (Raves Act, 1st Sess, 37th Leg, Ontario, 2000 (first reading 3 May 2000)) defined raves as “an event with}

all of the following attributes”:

1.Any part of the event occurs between 2 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.

2.People must pay money or give some other consideration to participate in the event. 3.The primary activity at the event is dancing by the participants.

4.The event does not take place in a private dwelling. See also. Kotsy, “Demolition”, supra note 15.

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underground parking garage. Bill 73 sought to prohibit the performance of electronic music after 3am.29 In the backlash, protests were organized by those who felt that their ability to attend their preferred cultural events and outlets—the dance music or electronic music subculture—was being unjustly compromised and that the police were “being used as an arm of the state to shut down cultural expressions that some [didn’t] like or understand, and to shut up and put out of business organizations that challenge[d] the provincial government.”30

The Party People Project (P3), for example, was formed to organize a coordinated response to the rave ban/Bill 73 by the Toronto rave and electronic dance music community. In conjunction with the efforts of the Toronto Dance Safety Committee and the Toronto Rave Information Project, work was put into fighting the rave ban by educating the public as to what the rave and electronic dance music scene was all about and in order to dispel a lot of the myths and negative public perceptions and press that came about after Allan Ho’s death.31 _{One notable} event was a protest attended by about 12,000 people in Nathan Phillips Square in front of Toronto City Hall on September 2, 2001, the day before the vote to reverse the rave ban by City Council would be cast.32 Along with a few other city councillors who stopped by the protest,

29 _{Bill 73, Raves Act, supra note 28 and see City of Toronto, “Establishment of Late Night Entertainment Event}

Protocol (Including Raves) and Co-ordinated Response to Inquest Recommendations into the Death of Allen Ho” (adopted December 1999).

30 _{See e.g. their “Press Release to Battle the Bill” that was workshopped with Toronto’s electronic dance music}

community on the Tribe Magazine forum: Kit-Kat, “Press Release to Battle the Bill” (13 June 2000), posted in Roll

Calls, online: Tribe <www.tribemagazine.com/board/threads/press-release-to-battle-the-bill.3128/Tribe Magazine>.

See also, for example, Rinaldo Walcott, “Everyone has the Right to Party”, The Globe and Mail (26 July 2000), online: <www.theglobeandmail.com>.

31 _{ioppoi29, “idance - a documentary (temp.) PART 1 of 2” (13 December 2006), online: YouTube}

<//youtu.be/iI6La8iBrOk>; ioppoi29, “idance - a documentary (temp.) PART 2 of 2” (12 December 2006), online: YouTube <youtu.be/XzDsV1t_2NA>.

32 _{Gay Abbate & Ravi Ubha, “Ravers Rally on Eve Before Council Vote”, The Globe and Mail (2 August 2000),}

online: <www.theglobeandmail.com>; “Thousands Dance at Rave Protest”, CBC News (2 August 2000), online: <www.cbc.ca>.

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City Councillor Olivia Chow (who would run for Mayor years later) was also in attendance and spoke in support of the protestors’ cause.33

Bans like Bill 73 were also introduced or considered in other cities across Canada in the years that followed, inspired part by the inquest into the death of Allen Ho and the 147-page report recommendations generated after the inquest.34 Protests against these kinds of restrictions on electronic dance music culture were not limited to Toronto either. There were similar protests for similar reasons occurring around the same time in, for example, Edmonton, Alberta, where the Right to Dance Coalition organized a protest dance in front of Edmonton City Hall for June 24, 2001 to protest Edmonton’s proposed “rave by-law” that limited all-ages electronic dance music events and raves by banning those under 18 years of age from attending even where no alcohol was being served or for sale.35

Less than a year before Guvernment would be destroyed, the electronic dance community again under threat as the city faced pressure for a new ban on raves. In April 2014 a motion was introduced by City Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti to ban electronic dance music events from Toronto’s city-owned buildings on Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) grounds, something that again drew on the inquest into the death of Allan Ho.36 The CNE’s board had voted in favour of

33 _{Abbate & Ubha, supra note 32; “Thousands Dance at Rave Protest”, supra note 32.}

34 _{Office of the Chief Coroner, Ontario, “Report on the Inquest into the Death of Allen Ho” (October 2001); Phil}

Fearon, Edmonton Planning and Development, “Report for Executive Committee” (Report on Proposed Rave Bylaw and Recommendations for Amendments to License Bylaw 6124) (12 March 2001) [Fearon, 2001]; Phil Fearon, Edmonton Planning and Development, “Report for Executive Committee” (Report on the Status of the Proposed ‘Rave Bylaw’ (B Smith)) (31 July 2000) at 6 [Fearon, 2000]; Canada, “Raves – By-law Effectiveness” (July 2002).

35 _{See e.g. Fearon, 2000, supra note 34 at 6; “Rave By-law Debate”, CBCNews (15 June 2001), online:}

<www.cbc.ca>.

36 _{Anna Kinastowski, City Solicitor, “Electronic Dance Music Concerts – Supplementary Report – Appendix F”,}

Staff Report Action Required (17 June 2014); Jane Gerster, “City Bans Electronic Dance Music Events from

Exhibition Place”, thestar.com (11 April 2014), online: <www.thestar.com>; Clare Shrybman, “Toronto’s

Electronic Dance Music Community Calls Foul After Exhibition Place Ban”, National Post (16 April 2014), online: <news.nationalpost.com>.

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the ban, leading up to Councillor Mammoliti’s introduction of the motion.37 _{However the ban} was overturned by City Council that same May when “[t]he vast majority on [city] council agreed that targeting a specific subculture is absurd,”38 even though many of these same city councillors “have long encouraged a subtler and more systematic battle against dance music when it comes to venues in their own wards”—whether these battles have manifested as dance floor moratoriums, zoning by-law issues, noise restrictions and complaints, nearly

insurmountable entertainment licensing hoops, and difficulty attaining liquor licenses or “Special Occasion Permits” for pop-up events in unconventional venues.39