People got very stupid and dangerous with fireworks in Toronto on Victoria Day
If there's a fireworks-permitted holiday in Toronto, you can guarantee that residents will end up misbehaving, whether at sanctioned displays, in public parks or in their own backyards.
Victoria Day 2024 was no different, even after police issued a release saying they would be stepping up enforcement and closely monitoring security issues over the long weekend.
Along with the usual debauchery of overcrowding, illegal parking, people shooting the pyrotechnics at one another and more, this year also included a fireworks-related double stabbing on a day that was supposed to be celebratory.
Around 10:45 p.m. on Monday, a group setting off fireworks at Martin Goodman Trail apparently started shooting them toward strangers, which led to a fight that landed two men in hospital with non-life-threatening stab wounds.
STABBING:
— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) May 21, 2024
Lake Shore Blvd W & Parkside Dr
10:45pm
-reports of a stabbing
-police o/s
-locate a man in his 30's w/stab wounds
-transported to hospital w/unknown injuries
-2nd male victim walked into hospital w/a non-life threatening injury
-ongoing investigation#GO1091165
^av
Further north near another of the city's green spaces, the Christie and Bloor street area was a warzone of teenagers shooting fireworks at each other, as seen in chaotic video footage where police were, according to CP24, "just hanging around and watching it happen."
In the video, people can be seen taking over a stretch of Bloor Street and terrifying passersby by lighting off Roman candles at one another across the roadway and sidewalks.
Apparently, the battle went on for two entire hours before authorities intervened and got it under control.
just watched a bunch of kids shoot fireworks into a store sign, it’s finally summer on the bloor st west ❤️❤️❤️
— s (@babyhawa101) May 21, 2024
Complaints from various neighbourhoods also abounded on social media, ranging from incidents of "young punks" directing fireworks at buildings to people continuing their own private fireworks shows well into the night, keeping their neighbourhood awake.
Some are urging for a ban of the twice-per-year explosive devices as a result, as many have called for in the past.
They gotta ban fireworks in Toronto too, these new kids take everything to far. It's so disrespectful to be doing that at 2:30am when people are trying to sleep
— khadija 🤍 (@ALIYAHKILLS) May 21, 2024
Outside of the city, other police forces also had their jobs cut out for them as they worked on crowd control near Victoria Day events in places like Oakville and Milton, and had to deal with more yahoos firing off pyrotechnics in public in Ajax and elsewhere.
Near the annual celebration at Canada's Wonderland in Vaughan, parking enforcement had a heyday with the dozens (if not hundreds) of motorists who decided it was a good idea to illegally stop on the side of Highway 400 and its overpasses to watch the show.
So, just the usual chaos out of the GTA over the long weekend this year.
Jack Landau
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