In university towns across Ontario and beyond, March 17 is synonymous with green-clad students awaking from their winter slumber and heading outside to party.
Police are at those parties too – keeping an eye on the festivities to ensure they don’t turn into an event like happened in London in 2012, when 13 partiers were arrested during a riot.
Nothing like that has happened in Waterloo or Guelph, and police say they don’t expect it to this year.
“We hope that all of our interactions will be social … however, if we need to, we will resort to enforcing the law,” Guelph Police Const. Gord Woods said Monday.
In Guelph, there will be an increased presence in areas where St. Patrick’s Day gatherings typically take place, such as the downtown and student neighbourhoods.
Police will also be continuing their popular tradition of live-tweeting what they’re seeing in the streets on March 17.
One of Waterloo’s most popular St. Patty’s hotspots is Ezra Avenue, which typically sees hundreds of students pour in for a day of revelling.
For the second straight year, a licensed, regulated gathering is being organized on Seagram Drive.
All 3,800 tickets have been sold for that event, although organizers don’t expect that many to attend at any one time.
It features a pancake breakfast, two stages and two tents – the biggest of which can hold 2,100 people.
Paid-duty police officers will also be on hand, as will private security guards.
