All Posts Tagged With: "Queen’s homecoming"

Queen’s University to bring back homecoming

Four-year suspension lifted

Following a four-year suspension to curb rowdy partying, property damage and injuries, Queen’s University will reinstate its annual homecoming weekend next year.

Queen’s Principal Daniel Woolf announced Tuesday the alumni gathering will be held on two weekends in the fall of 2013, Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 18-20.

The university announced a two-year suspension the event in November 2008 following a raucous September weekend that saw 140 arrests, 700 liquor charges and 23 severely intoxicated people sent to the emergency room as an estimated 8,000 partiers crowded onto Aberdeen Street, a two-block stretch of student housing. The annual event gained notoriety in 2005 after revelers jammed the street in droves, smashing beer bottles and lighting a flipped car on fire. In 2010, Woolf further delayed the return of homecoming by three years.

The perils of drinking on Canadian campuses

A timeline of injuries, deaths, scandals and crackdowns

Graphic by Jessie Willms. Text by Josh Dehaas.

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At least 23 arrests as Queen’s parties on

Despite homecoming cancellation, booze-fuelled bashes on campus keep police busy

They cancelled homecoming at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., but it didn’t stop the party.

Police say booze-fuelled bashes at on-campus houses in a residential neighbourhood have kept them very busy. Const. Mike Menor says at least 23 arrests have been made on charges including assault police and obstruct police since the parties began Friday evening. But Menor says officers on horseback have helped keep the drunken partygoers from flooding into the streets.

Last year, an estimated 8,000 people jammed Aberdeen Street, and officers made nearly 140 arrests. Twenty-five Queen’s students were also charged with illegally selling alcohol and hospital emergency rooms overflowed with grossly intoxicated partygoers.

The university decided to cancel the fall homecoming for at least two years after medical staff warned that the partying was bound to lead to a fatal incident.

- The Canadian Press

Kingston police brace for another night of partying

Last year, thousands of people jammed the streets and officers made nearly 140 arrests

Kingston police are bracing for another night of revelry by Queen’s University students after nearly two dozen arrests were made Friday night.

The university announced in November that traditional fall homecoming celebrations would be cancelled for at least two years due to safety concerns.

But revellers refuse to give up the partying that accompanies the festivities and continue to throw unofficial “faux coming” parties.

With the football game underway Saturday afternoon, police had already responded to 18 incidents including three rowdy keg parties, numerous liquor violations, an indecent act, a vandalized car, a break and enter, and a report of kids throwing tree branches onto a bus.

Const. Mike Menor says about 23 people were arrested Friday night and early Saturday morning on charges ranging from assaulting a police officer to public intoxication. He adds that partiers threw objects at a prisoner van after arrests were made.

Menor says police have also seen a number of underage drinkers this weekend and that homecoming weekend is always taxing on police and Kingston residents, who are fed up with the resources being poured into the event.

Toronto police on horseback and riot police have been called in to assist local officers in dealing with the influx of debauchery.

But he adds that police expect Saturday night parties to be even more out of control because it is traditionally the major night for celebrations.

Menor says 11 officers on horseback helped keep the drunken party goers from flooding into the streets Friday night.