Chief Constable Adam Palmer
Remarks
The Celebration of Light is going to be a great event, like it is every year, and we’re happy to have everybody coming downtown from all parts of Metro Vancouver.
As you know, every year the Celebration of Light attracts hundreds of thousands of people from all across Metro Vancouver to downtown Vancouver. The crowds spread from Third Beach, Second Beach, English Bay, Sunset Beach, Kitsilano, and up to Jericho Beach – around that whole horseshoe of English Bay.
We’re not expecting any major disruptions. There will be the usual traffic disruptions that you’re used to, of course, but other than that we’re not expecting anything out of the ordinary. We have very robust plans in place to make sure that everybody is safe during this event. We will have a large number of officers deployed amongst the crowds to ensure families and everyone come down is safe, and feels safe. There will be several hundred officers working during all three nights of the Celebration of Light.
We will have Mounted Unit officers out on horseback, regular patrol officers, and marine officers out on the police boats. We’re going to have our Public Safety Unit out there, with specially trained officers who have the expertise and training dealing with large crowds. We will have officers on bicycles, officers on motorbikes, community safety personnel, and traffic safety officers directing traffic. Air One will be monitoring the crowds from the air, rounding out a large police presence to ensure we don’t have any trouble that night. We find that the visible presence of police officers helps deter any alcohol-fuelled fights that may happen during the night.
We are working very closely with our partners with the City of Vancouver Parks and Engineering, the BC Ambulance Service, Vancouver Fire, Metro Vancouver Transit Police, to make sure this is a safe event for everyone coming into the city.
We will be enforcing the provincial liquor laws, like we do every year — on our streets, in the parks, and on our transit systems. This includes drinking in public and underage drinking. As a reminder to people, drinking alcohol in public is illegal, and the fine is $230 if you’re caught consuming liquor in a public place. If you are under 19 years of age, which is a minor in British Columbia, we’ll be contacting your parents and having them come and deal with you.
There are three licensed venues this year surrounding this year’s Celebration of Light. The first one will be the YVR Fan Zone, which you might be familiar with from previous years at English Bay. It seats about 1200 people. Two new ones this year will be at Sunset Beach, with 750 liquor seats, and the Inukshuk, which will be a small one with about 300 seats. There’s plans in place with our officers and private security to deal with those venues.
On event nights, we will have our media relations officers out there. On Saturday night, Constable Brian Montague will be the contact and, of course, we will have regular updates through Twitter @VancouverPD, with Sandra Glendinning as our social media officer. I’ll be out on Saturday night, wandering around, seeing how things are going, and will be tweeting on my Twitter account @ChiefPalmer, as well.
