Your Right To Dance and listen to music is being regulated, refused, and even shut down by The Calgary City Police and Calgary City Council. Regulating dancing? It’s an absurd notion, but Calgary City Council has gotten away with it. In fact, it appears they have done this without the general public’s knowledge or understanding of the fine print. Calgary City Council and The Calgary Police Service now exercise complete control over your right to dance. This bylaw contradicts several of the fundamental freedoms of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Since the beginning of time, the human condition has drawn mankind together with the sound of the drums. Many African Tribes still use this method to mark special occasions and meet prospective mates. In fact, many of you reading this surely met your partner or spouse this very same way, be it a nightclub, community social, school dance, pub, house party, wedding, "sock hop" or gasp … even a Rave. Had this oppressive bylaw been in place when you were young, you may never have met your significant other. People have always been afraid of what they don’t understand. When Elvis Presley first appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show", we were only allowed to see him from the waist up. Rock ‘N Roll was called the "Devil’s Music" for the longest time (jazz too). You have to keep it all in perspective. With your help, hopefully Mankind will continue to gather to the sound of the drums for many years to come.

Under this oppressive bylaw, a party that goes from 249 to 251 people suddenly requires Police, Paramedics, Fire Department Approval, Security and a permit, not to mention 45 days ‘application’ notice. This easily raises the cost from say $10.00 / ticket to over $50.00 ticket and all for the privilege of dancing with your friends. Paid Duty Officers cost $66/hr/each and security rates are very expensive. The average school dance has only two to three weeks notice – imagine a law requiring a school to schedule events around peoples busy lives almost 7 weeks in advance? When you throw dinner parties, end of season sports parties, company Christmas parties or a get together, can you imagine a law requiring you to apply for a permit 45 days in advance?

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides every Canadian with the following Freedoms:

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

This bylaw (#34M2000) requires a multitude of both financial and bureaucratic burdens making it monetarily impossible to freely assemble and associate as provided in our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We now have to pay both The City Of Calgary AND The Calgary Police Service for the right to peacefully assemble – both have the right to veto and/or severely limit this fundamental freedom. The Constitution Act of 1982 states this is a freedom, yet now we have to pay for it, even then, that does not guarantee us this fundamental freedom. The Calgary Police Service and City Council have clearly overstepped their bounds.

Costs have skyrocketed since the inception of this bylaw. The over regulation of these events now requires Police, Security and Paramedics on site. The event patrons end up paying the price. Parties that previously cost $10 - $20.00 / ticket, now easily exceed $50.00. Prior to the bylaw, there were all sorts of different sized events, now there are only two types of events: Under 250 people (not requiring a permit) or over 1000 people. This extreme dichotomy is due to the excessive and very expensive bylaw requirements. The fixed costs are so high that 1000 people have to attend just to break even. There is also an extreme shortage of venues that will accommodate 1000 people in Calgary, but numerous facilities exist that accommodate 251-500 patrons. It is financially impossible to throw an event for 251-900 people with a reasonable ticket price. Event organizers and Promoters can no longer afford to bring in popular DJ’s, much less have the event itself. Many socially / civic minded event organizers/volunteers used to throw charitable events, but that is a thing of the past.

Due to the ludicrous costs involved, many parties are opting for basements and hidden venues that only a select few know about. The bylaw has driven parties away from the more accessible public spaces and into various private warehouses in and around the city. This bylaw band aid "solution" by City Hall has done nothing to ensure the safety of patrons or the community, in fact it has had quite the opposite effect. However it certainly gave the appearance of some Aldermanic activity going on at City Hall. People are merely practicing their fundamental freedom of peaceful assembly, expression and association – namely their desire to simply dance and have fun.

The bylaw is written in such a way that anyone providing goods or services to an Extended Dance Event can be fined / held accountable for infractions. This has successfully scared off many venue owners and service providers. The degree of ‘red tape’ and bureaucracy is truly abysmal. The whole idea of the bylaw was to seriously impact the number of events through bureaucracy and over regulation in the guise of ‘public safety’. Public Safety is such a hot issue that anytime you want to change regulations, merely spout it’s "in the interest of Public Safety". The folks earning their livelihood at these shows should not be punished.

Some folks feel The Calgary Police do a fair job of general enforcement in Calgary, however, where this bylaw is concerned, they have failed miserably. The Police gave their "recommendations" to City Council in regards to "electronica" events and City Council blindly adopted these recommendations without question. The Calgary Police have been given (carte blanche) powers heretofore unheard of under a democracy. Under this bylaw, Police have the authority to control:

• if you assemble
• when you assemble
• where you assemble
• how long you assemble
• and of course -- how many P.D.O.’s (Paid Duty Officers) you must hire to peacefully assemble (despite the fact it is a guaranteed freedom).

A promoter or event planner must also provide all sorts of private information to The Police with no idea of how it may be used in the future. The Calgary Police Service may also deny your application with no reason given. The Police should be required to respond in writing within a reasonable amount of time, especially since the application fee ($250.00) is non-refundable.

More simply put, Calgary Police have authority to tell you if, when, where, and how long you can dance for, and of course how many PDO’s are required to chaperone you. We may have required a parent or a teacher at our school dance when we were 13, but requiring someone with a gun in his belt is a little unsettling at 25 years of age (or even 35 for some of us), Rights and Freedoms aside.

The Calgary Police Service claim they need a 45 day ‘background check’ to review an applicant’s request for an event permit. This is an absurd amount of time. If you race down Deerfoot Trail at 180 Km/Hr, it takes only a few minutes for The Calgary Police Service to pull up your file. In fact, you can obtain your own background check in 30 minutes from the RCMP for only $27 (while you wait even). This artificial delay has been introduced by The Police and The City to further complicate the event planning process and to just plain deter people who decide to throw a last minute get-together. Just ask yourself how many parties have you planned with 45 days notice?

In Calgary, it is possible to setup a parade (with street closures and Police present) with two weeks application period. You would think it simpler to setup a simple dance permit in under 15 days?

Many popular acts (bands and DJ’s) touring across Canada are unable to give 45 days notice to local promoters, so event promoters don’t even try to set up venues for these acts. We are missing out on many great shows.

Paid Duty Officers cost $66.00 each officer / per hour and consist of off duty police officers. The Police will NOT do any work at the event other than ‘be a presence’. Many people have repeatedly witnessed their ‘lack’ of action at these events. Generally it means walking around once every half an hour, drinking coffee and eating pizza. The reason being -- there really isn’t any work for them to do. What a great way for The City and Police Officers to make some extra cash! The Calgary Police Service know the more PDO’s they force an Event Promoter to have, the less likely the event is to happen (or the easier it is to pay off their 4-wheel drives ...)

The Calgary Police Service is forcing event sponsors/ promoters/ organizers to have as many as 8 PDO’s for as few as 800 attendees. The ratios of police to patrons (hence the cost) is completely absurd. This ratio seems to fall somewhere between 1 PDO to 100 patrons and 1 PDO to 250 patrons. The costs are astronomical. Rock concerts do not require this level of compliance and they even allow attendees to consume alcohol while many dance events are ‘dry’.

If you are unfamiliar with the term ‘Electronica’, it really just means music created mostly electronically versus acoustically.

At the average rock concert in The Calgary Saddledome, take AC/DC for example, there are approximately 20 000 fans in the stands. At these events, patrons are allowed to purchase and consume liquor and even imbibe in other controlled substances. If you have been to any such events, you know since alcohol is served, there are going to be numerous altercations. Altercations at electronica /dance type events where no alcohol is permitted are quite frankly, rare. Even Security Companies will tell you they would much rather work a dance event verses a rock concert due to the peacefulness of the events. If the same ratios of PDO’s (Paid Duty Officers) to event attendees applied to these events, then there should be between 50-100 Police Officers at rock concerts. At last count, there was something like 4 (yes four) PDO’s at AC/DC. Keep in mind that PDO’s cost $66.00 /per hour each officer. It’s simply not fair.

The public is allowed to purchase alcohol at bars, pubs, night clubs, get into altercations, etc. -- but there are no PDO’s (Police) required at these establishments. Yet at dance / electronica events where alcohol is not even sold or permitted, The Police are allowed to directly regulate what is going on. The Calgary Police Service is unfairly targeting these events.

At a recent Canada Day 2001 electronic festival held at a private venue, Calgary Police required an unheard of 8 P.D.O.’s. The capacity for this event was approximately 2000 people. When The Calgary Police Service approved events held at Max Bell Arena, a City owned venue with a capacity of approximately 2700 people, only 3 P.D.O.’s are required. What is the difference? Max Bell Arena is a city owned venue …

There are some folks who say this bylaw addresses the safety concerns of event attendees and the public. Both Calgary and Canada have excellent existing building, fire and safety codes already. Everyone must adhere to these guidelines. Anyone breaching these codes knows full well the consequences, including possible legal and civil action. These regulations are in place to ensure the safety of the public and they are very comprehensive in scope. It is absurd to think we need another layer of laws on top of these very viable and proven safety regulations. In fact, what City Council is saying is that this existing legislation is not good enough, either that or they wanted the appearance of doing something in the eyes of the public.

The existing Fire Codes address proper exits, electrical concerns and total building capacity so overcrowding does not occur. Fire Inspectors assign building occupancy loads based upon strict guidelines. There is no getting around this and absolutely no need to add an unnecessary further bureaucratic bylaw layer.

At first, The Anti-Dance Bylaw was quite profitable for many local security companies. The security companies had to supply an unheard amount of staff to meet bylaw regulations. This drove ticket prices up even further as with a large number of staff also come supervisors. This information gets sent in to the permit department. For years, events took place with just a few friendly security folks at the door with very few problems. The security companies themselves say the level of compliance is unreasonable.

Obviously, just as there is a need for Security at Rock Concerts, there is a need for security at the door to ensure there is no alcohol or contraband being smuggled in, and general order is kept while people enter the venue. After the patrons have entered the venue, security demands are usually quite minimal.

Paramedics seem like a really nice thing to have, but there is often in excess of 8 paramedics per event, and most of the time, they are just sitting around. When someone does require some assistance, usually with a sprained angle from dancing and having a good time, there are often 3 or 4 paramedics attending. It is really quite silly once you see it for yourself. 2 to 3 Paramedics are usually more than enough to deal with any medical emergency. Paramedics have told us that the time they spend at these events counts toward EMS certification and that is why there are so many of them. At least they don’t cost $66.00 / hr!!!

By definition, this bylaw includes many special events such as school dances, stampede events, birthday parties, etc.

There is definite merit to a bylaw ensuring unscrupulous promoters in it for a quick buck cannot thrive, but a bylaw limiting our freedom of assembly is ill conceived. Further, the fact the bylaw specifically singles out ‘Raves’ is completely discriminatory. An event bylaw covering any type of concert, event, show, dance, etc, would be much better received and better serve the public’s interest.

The Calgary Police Service should not have the responsibility in determining when, where, how long or even if we assemble. The Police are welcome to walk through an event periodically or give it a ‘special attention’, in fact it is even quite desirable. A ‘special attention’ is what Police term an item of interest during regular street patrols.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, so it’s time to start squeaking! You can phone/fax and e-mail your City Aldermen, (heck write them all!). You are entitled to call / write each one of them, and you should. If we get just one percent of Calgary to E-mail all of City Council and the Mayor, that is 8000X15 = 120 000 e-mails. We think they will stand up and take notice!