Vancouver looking to smaller scale events for playoffs

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver will not be inviting the mass crowds into downtown for Canucks playoffs games like it did last year as it aims to avoid a ‘threepeat’ of hockey related violence. The city has launched a detailed plan that will be rolled out if the team makes it to the third and fourth rounds.

This year’s focus is on family friendly venues with the Canucks run for the Stanley Cup getting underway mid next month. Mayor Gregor Robertson says you will be able to take part in block parties, local street hockey, and smaller screenings at community centres. Similar events will be held throughout Metro Vancouver. “The downtown is still obviously open and we’re welcoming people to come downtown and enjoy our restaurants and bars but to do so responsibly,” he says.

It’s all about cutting off uncontrollable, drunken crowds before they can get downtown. That means liquor search and seizure on transit and a close eye on rogue plans that pop up on social media. TransLink will be monitoring and, if necessary, controlling crowds into downtown. SkyTrain cars will have the ability to skip busy stations if too many people are filing in at once. “TransLink has a plan ready to go that is adaptable to any situation, with the prime objective of keeping people moving around the region,” says COO Doug Kelsey.
    
The city has hired an event planner to coordinate mass gatherings downtown, and if there are any, charging for tickets will be mandatory. There will be improved coordination with police and the city’s emergency operations centre.  Police have more and better equipment to work with, and the Liquor Control Branch has measures (like last year) it can implement to stop or slow the sale of booze on game days.

“There’s a couple big things that have changed since last year and I think that people have come to notice that there are very significant consequences,” Mayor Robertson adds, pointing to the public shaming of suspected rioters in the campaign to identify them by Vancouver Police.

Roberston offered more rhetoric on how Vancouverites can celebrate responsibly and how the city came together during the Olympics, but quickly deflected ‘no-fun-city’ accusations. “Fun doesn’t mean you come and trash our downtown. That’s not on. If people are looking for trouble they better not come downtown.”

He hopes plans by other communities in Metro Vancouver will pan out. “Everyone is still working on their actual celebration plans at this point but we expect it to be more than last year that there will be celebrations around the region as well,” Robertson says, adding there is still a chance away games could be screened inside Rogers Arena.

Meanwhile, 20 per cent of recommendations from four riot reports have not been acted on but Robertson is confident the plan will work because the most important one has been dealt with. “It will be very difficult for people who are drunk to get on the transit system and get into our downtown.  That’s been a clear recommendation from all the riot reviews.”

The Canucks have pledged their support for the plan, which is good news for riot report co-author John Furlong. “The Canucks have an immense amount of power through their players and through their organization to speak to the fans and to help create the atmosphere and they are all over that.”

“Everyone is on board,” Furlong adds. “It seems everyone is saying we’re going to play our part.”

Furlong is pleased with the city’s progress in implementing a plan to prevent trouble and believes it’s going to work. “People will come downtown and book seats in restaurants and bars to have a good time. But the likelihood of gathering the numbers we had last year, they’re incredibly slim because last year everybody thought they were going to get to watch the game on a big screen downtown. They’re not going to get to do that this year.”

VANCOUVER POLICE DEPARTMENT PREPARING FOR CANUCKS PLAYOFF RUN

As for young people who will choose to head downtown and get drunk anyway, VPD Deputy Chief Doug Lepard says police will be ready, “We can’t allow the toxic soup that we saw last year occurring in Vancouver.  We need to interdict it much earlier.” He says liquor stores have control measures and the transit strategy to screen for booze and drunks should discourage bad behaviour.

The VPD is already coordinating efforts with the Mounties, Transit Police, TransLink, and other agencies.

“80 percent of the people that we have charged do not live in Vancouver” says Lepard. “So it really is a regional event. We are confident that we have done everything that we reasonably can to be well prepared this year.”

An effort was made last spring to stop people from bringing booze downtown. Lepard says they will work even harder to intercept alcohol this year.

That means a regional plan to ensure that we are dealing with things upstream, that we’re not having as many trouble-makers come downtown from various locations, that we are dealing with the liquor going on the train.”

The VPD will be consulting with the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch about early closings for liquor stores and beer & wine stores, if there is trouble during the playoffs.

Also, the Deputy Chief says more officers will be equipped with cameras this year, and steps are being taken to speed-up the process of arresting, charging, and prosecuting offenders.

Social media like Facebook and Twitter will also be monitored by police, as the Canucks attempt another run at the Stanley Cup.

BINGE-DRINKING AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

The provincial government and Vancouver Coastal Health will attempt to educate young people, especially men, about the dangers of binge drinking.

“Young men in BC, 20-to-34, 45-percent of them report binge drinking in the last month” said Doctor Patricia Daly with VCH. “Those men might not be aware of the harms that we can now document, associated with binge drinking”

“What we are really trying to do is to begin a conversation about the culture of binge drinking that we are seeing among our youth, the fact that many young people feel that the only way to have a good time is to binge-drink, to pre-load, so-to-speak, before going out to enjoy an event.”

The campaign will begin later this spring. VCH has been working with City Hall and TransLink on this effort, likely meaning that posters and advertising will go up in the city and at transit stops once the effort has been launched.

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