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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 5, 20 20 | 4 Research has shown messag- es about the risks of attending the gatherings aren't being tak- en seriously by students. "The door-knocker campaign is not as effective as we believed it in our original times of doing it, because it is (often) ignored," conceded D'Arcy Delamere, a University of Waterloo lecturer and a facilitator with the task force. However, continuing to pro- vide warnings about safety con- cerns is something that must continue, he concluded. "What we have done is at least informed people of the risk," he said. "Whether they choose to ig- nore it is a different thing." There hasn't been a crisis yet because of good operational management, Delamere noted. "We have faced a tremendous issue of potential loss of lives." Changing the nature of the event includes various actions, from student-led initiatives such as wellness fairs and the mayor engaging local school trustees, to education cam- paigns that ultimately seek to put an end to the events and curb obnoxious, drunken beha- viour. "We believe that harm reduc- tion is essential to solving the public's issue at hand," Nip, a fourth year student and volun- teer task force member, told council. "There have been, his- torically, too many attendees impacted by violence and sexual assault." Making sure messages about students' vulnerability to crimes of opportunity hit home is key, she said. "Something we found in pre- vious research was that stu- dents weren't hearing any of these messages from people that they cared about," Nip told the Chronicle. "One thing we're do- ing as a student union is promot- ing safety and respect from the student perspective, so it's a peer-to-peer communication method." This year's door-knocking campaign with student volun- teers and community partners takes place March 10. Nip said there's also a new marketing campaign that will focus on the expectations versus the reality of the event. Another group of students is actively pursuing other ideas that will be presented to council at the end of the month. Some councillors wanted to know what impact recommen- dations would have on this year's St. Patrick's Day gather- ing, if any. "One of the challenges we've had in the past around commu- nications in addition to students not necessarily paying good at- tention to the information pro- vided by the door-knockers is that our media partners try to provide free advertising for the event, substantially," said Coun. Diane Freeman. Revelers gather on Ezra Ave- nue on St. Patrick's Day in 2018. While that crowd was the larg- est in history, it has increased by nearly 10,000. Adam Jackson/ Torstar "I feel that they've made it in- to this no-miss, rite-of-passage event." Freeman said she recently learned a local radio station is promoting T-shirts that say "I survived Ezra Ave." "People are getting hurt; peo- ple are ending up in the ICU," she said. "Some people could die ... and we have a media partner that thinks this is a fun event they want to advertise. How do we stop that?" The city's community servic- es commissioner and task force co-chair, Mark Dykstra, said drawing awareness to safety concerns through the main- stream media and on social me- dia will be paramount going for- ward. Collective annual costs of the street gatherings to the commu- nity have ballooned to $750,000. One task force recommenda- tion is to spend $100,000 on a communications strategy with the city contributing up to $10,000 of the cost. "We're hoping the short-term costs will bring long-term costs savings," said Dykstra. Another recommendation to consider -- changing the built form of the Ezra-Bricker neigh- bourhood -- is more of a long- term visioning process that will get underway this year, led by the city. Delamere said the task force couldn't just throw money at the problem and needed to find so- lutions that were not only feasi- ble, but sustainable. "We knew we could not have riot police try to control crowds because we'd become known as Hong Kong of Canada, and that's not what we want," he said. However Coun. Tenille Bono- guore said the status quo can't continue. Freeman said council must acknowledge how helpless some citizens feel when their rights are trampled and properties are trespassed. "It appears on the outset that nothing is changing, so I am very hopeful the changes rec- ommended this year will effect change (eventually)," said Free- man. "Can some folks from the task force outline what success looks like for you. What are your mea- surables? How will you define success?" Dykstra said he ultimately hopes to see the trajectory change with a decrease in at- tendees. The number of people at last year's homecoming event was reduced by aligning the date for homecoming with other univer- sities to deter attendance at the street gathering from outside the area, as well as implement- ing fencing and security pods. Tom Berczi, Waterloo Re- gional Police Service superin- tendent and task force co-chair, told council planning for this year's event is already complete and based on a similar model to homecoming, with the expecta- tion the number of people will be more significant. The city has strengthened by- laws to help shut down parties early due to noise complaints and is restricting on-street parking the night before street gatherings to help reduce the number of interlopers. If the task force is successful at integrating the efforts of all those involved, it will result in something dramatically differ- ent than what people have wit- nessed in years past, Delamere said. Tony Araujo, Wilfrid Lauri- er's associate vice-president of campus administration, called Monday's meeting a "watershed moment" before Waterloo May- or Dave Jaworsky said he was convinced the task force left no stone unturned. The task force, which has now been disbanded, involved stakeholders from all three post-secondary institutions, as well as the city and first re- sponders. Future implementation of the recommendations will be overseen by the city's town and gown committee, which reports to council. "I really think the peer pres- sure is the way to go," concluded Jaworsky. STORY BEHIND THE STO- RY: The city formed a task force two years ago to address con- cerns associated with large street gatherings in Waterloo that have gotten out of hand. COUNCIL Students, as far as the eye can see on Ezra Avenue, during homecoming last fall. Torstar file photo Continued from page 1 'IT APPEARS ON THE OUTSET THAT NOTHING IS CHANGING'