Noise complaints blight York Region as busy festival weekend kicks off
York Regional Police busy with calls well into Saturday morning, as revelers set off fireworks well into night

yorkregion.com
June 3, 2017
By Jeremy Grimaldi

There may not have been much mayhem on Friday night and on into Saturday morning in York Region, but there were plenty of calls into police about the prospects of it.

York Regional Police Staff Sgt. Dave Mitchell said his officers spent much of the night dealing with calls from residents, some of which were in relation to fireworks being mistaken as gunshots.

"It's a busy weekend for events in York Region," he said, explaining that on Friday night police dealt with between 10 and 12 noise complaints, which carried into the morning, resulting in four more noise complaints after 5 a.m. Saturday morning.

There are at least five events occurring throughout York Region this weekend including the Unionville festival, Aurora street festival, Mt. Albert Sports Day, the Pride festival in Richmond Hill and the TOUR de SPEED, a biking event in Newmarket.

Mitchell said a RIDE unit was out on Friday night and will be out again on Saturday night.

He said it will be interesting to see the number of impaired drivers charged following this weekend, considering at least one event, the Mt. Albert Sports Day, has an outdoor beer tent.

"Anytime you have liquor during an outdoor event, it's a bit of a party atmosphere," he said. "I just hope everyone behaves themselves. With all these events going on is it possible to see a spike (in impaired drivers)? Well I hope not, we've been trying to drive this message home. Everyone needs to have a good time, but if you drink, don't drive."