The mayor of Antigonish says they are looking into how St. FX students can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day safely.

Sean Cameron tells our newsroom the unsanctioned event on the weekend although mainly positive, was alarming for residents with the number people who gathered on St. Mary’s Street.

“What happened was a mass gathering of well over 1,000 students, town residents, friends of students who came from other towns and cities, converged [and] took part in this activity.”

Cameron adds, community members became concerned.

“There wasn’t a lot of noise, which was good, but for those residents on that street, it was very, very concerning. People on your step… there’s some student rentals there that students lock the doors so no one could get in. It would be alarming, right?”

He says RCMP did do a good job containing them, but the event resulted in 17 summary offence tickets, 11 for liquor, two for the noise nuisance by-law, eight were held in cells, three were taken to St. Martha’s for intoxication with 30 calls made to the town.

Camerson says although there were no accidents or damage, what was so concerning, was the lack of access for emergency crews.

“Our fire department was relatively close, and we have a volunteer fire department, so when the fire fighters respond, their access to the fire hall is blocked and that could result in a two- or three-or -five-minute delay. ”

He says, if there had been any fire or accidents, that would have been catastrophic.

What to do about it…

Cameron says the reason the event got so big is mainly due to an app that students use.

“This app kind of organized it. So, we have no input. And talking to a student… they took a poll where they wanted to meet and the poll decided, St. Mary’s.”

He says what they are looking into is possibly providing a safe location to have these events.

“[It] would have access to porta potties, it would have access to hand washing facilities…so, if that happens…at least it’s contained. An area of town that is less disruptive, impact emergency vehicles and working with St. FX and the RCMP.”

Camerson says they are going to keep the lines of communication open and work with the Town’s police and licensing committee.

University disappointed

Meanwhile, in an email to our newsroom, St. FX says unfortunately these types of events are not unique and happen too often across the country.

“We are disappointed and will be moving forward with our disciplinary process where we can identify students behaving egregiously.”

They add, they will continue to share information and prepare as well as possible for the future.