Victoria Park chaos not a failing of new fireworks bylaw: City

Last week, the City announced a new fireworks bylaw enforcement campaign to coincide with Victoria Day.

It had additional bylaw officers deployed in parks and neighbourhoods where frequent fireworks complaints had been logged in the past. The intention was to educate the public about the rules around backyard firework displays and to allow bylaw officers to quickly respond to complaints.

And for the most part, it worked, despite the mayhem in Victoria Park, Monday night.

“It’s an unfortunate situation where you had a group of youth that were looking to create trouble, regardless if there were rules in place or not,” said Gloria MacNeil, director of bylaw enforcement for the City of Kitchener, while speaking to The Mike Farwell Show.

Monday night, chaos erupted as a crowd of mostly young people began shooting fireworks at one another, passing vehicles, buildings and even police officers.

A 14-year-old was arrested.

“We had extra staff in Victoria Park just to ensure that if anything happened there, that we were ready to respond quickly,” MacNeill added.

Police and bylaw officers shut down the park at 9 pm and began clearing people out.

MacNeill said the city will use the incident Monday night to better prepare for future potential incidents.

“Staff will be meeting and we will be doing an internal debrief over the next couple of weeks.”

Canada Day is a little over 5 weeks away.