Skip to main content

Huge homecoming parties result in arrests, fines across Canadian college towns

Share
HALIFAX -

On several big Canadian campuses Monday, the morning chatter wasn't about classwork or assignments. Instead, students traded gossip about some of the huge parties that took place over the weekend.

Thousands of post-secondary students packed the streets in Guelph, Ont., London, Ont. and Halifax on Saturday, breaking liquor laws, COVID-19 restrictions and in some cases, property.

But some students got more than a homecoming hangover for their efforts, as police in Halifax issued tickets and arrested 10 people for public drunkenness. Police in London arrested one person and issued a number of fines. Partygoers in Guelph were limited to tickets and fines.

College town rowdiness may not be new, but it seems public patience has evaporated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Enjoy the fines & upcoming academic discipline hearings you rightly deserve," Guelph mayor Cam Guthrie tweeted Saturday.

Halifax city councillor Waye Mason blamed the high number of first-year students as a result of the number of high-school graduates who deferred post-secondary studies amid the pandemic.

"You have twice the population of students who have no kind of grounding in adult behaviour in public," he told CTV National News.

In a news release, Dalhousie University admonished those who attended what it called an "unsanctioned" and "illegal" event, urging them to get tested for COVID-19 and "not to attend classes or general on-campus activities for one week."

Dalhousie's student union fired back, insisting the incident was predictable and preventable while criticizing school administration.

"Dalhousie currently has an on-campus dry policy. You're also not allowed to have visitors in residence," Madeleine H. Stinson, president of the student union, told CTV National News. "We know students were going to party and Dalhousie created it so that they couldn't do so on campus."

Meanwhile, Halifax police are investigating the events of the weekend and said it could result in charges. Dalhousie has also threatened to fine or even to expel students who participated in the party. 

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'

The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.

Stay Connected