Pubdate: Wed, 08 Mar 2000 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2000 The Toronto Star Contact: One Yonge St., Toronto ON, M5E 1E6 Fax: (416) 869-4322 Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Forum: http://www.thestar.com/editorial/disc_board/ Page: B5 Author: Cal Millar, Staff Reporter POLICE, PROVINCE TO TARGET RAVES Meeting Comes On Heels Of Shootings At After-Hours Clubs Key provincial government officials and law enforcement agencies are to meet next week to draft strategies to help police combat problems with rave parties at after-hours clubs. The parties take place on a regular basis most nights of the week and police are encountering drug trafficking, weapons and assaults, said Superintendent Aiden Maher, head of 52 Division in downtown Toronto. "The community at large is very concerned," he said. "They feel their neighbourhoods are unsafe. There is so much gunfire." In the past three weeks, two bouncers have been shot to death after attempting to eject patrons. Several other people have been wounded, police said. Maher said a committee set up in his police division has been studying the problems caused by raves for the past six months and investigators have already used a number of strategies to control activities at after-hours clubs. Following a raid late last year at the Ministry Nite Club on Mercer St., plainclothes detectives from 52 Division charged both the club and the operator of the rave party for violating liquor licence regulations. They also seized $13,700 in profits and charged the operators with possessing proceeds from the commission of an offence under the Liquor Licence Act. A justice of the peace registered a conviction and, in addition to imposing a $2,000 fine, ordered the accused to forfeit $2,700 to the province from the profits and put the remaining $11,000 in trust pending a hearing to determine if the money should be seized by the government or returned to the club owner. Maher described it as a precedent-setting conviction that sends a clear message to nightclub owners that they must operate within the law or risk the consequences. "The key to this is going after the owner," he said. "The person who owns the property should take responsibility." Maher said legislation is needed to allow the police to go after landlords who rent out properties for rave parties. Both Consumer Minister Bob Runciman and David Tsubouchi, the province's solicitor-general, are scheduled to attend next week's meeting. Runciman announced late last year that plans were being developed to host a meeting to map out strategies to halt rave parties. At the time, intelligence investigators expressed concern about the proliferation of designer drugs, such as Ecstasy, at these parties. There have been at least three deaths from drug overdoses at raves since last July, police said. - --- MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst