It must have made Rob Gilroy and Jerry Sprackman, listed owners of The Docks entertainment complex, smirk when they were visited by city noise control officers after a weekend party attended by 15,000 that kept Beach and Toronto Island residents running for their earplugs.
Even though more than 20 off-duty police hired by party organizers to keep order reported that drug trafficking at the rave site was "absolutely rampant", the most Dock owners have to worry about is $200 to $500 as a first-offence fine under city noise bylaws.
In the last few months, three people have died at raves. Everyone left the rave at The Docks alive, although some people had to be moved from the party to hospital by ambulance.
It turns out that toothless municipal bylaws render Toronto police absolutely powerless to protect the local citizenry from raves.
Incredibly, local politicians who gave The Docks carte blanch at its inception, now point the finger of blame at local police for an overnight rave held at a parking lot near the nightclub at the foot of Polson St., on Toronto's waterfront.
In the City of Toronto where in other establishments you need a special permit just to sneeze, The Docks had no need for one, as their business permit granted by the city in 1996 was sufficient.
Inspector Randal Munroe, called on the carpet by the same politicians who allowed The Docks carte blanch reminds us that: "The Docks is sitting on city-owned land. They have a lease from the city, they have a business permit and they have a liquor licence."
Citizens within earshot of the entertainment complex, which attracts crowds of more than 10,000 on summer nights, have been complaining to their councillors for years.
Flouting the law, The Docks began life as a waterfront entertainment venue by boldly fencing in a boardwalk on land that is unquestionably public land.
In August of 1997, then City of Toronto Director of Inspections and Chief Building Official Pam Coburn told Toronto Free Press that Dock's owners were breaking the rules.
When asked if the public boardwalk area facing the lake, fenced in by Dock's owners was still public, Coburn answered, "Yes, and what they (The Docks) are doing is illegal."
Coburn confirmed that no city licence could cover the takeover of the public boardwalk lands by the owners of The Docks.
In time, the City forced nightclub owners to remove the fence. The owners posted a sign, in place to the current day, warning members of the public at large that they cannot make use of the still public boardwalk during long hours of the nightclub's operation.
Originally, the office and warehouse of Landawn Developments, The Docks made its debut as restaurant nightclub, with a seating capacity of 3,168, back in the summer of 1996.
Crowd control measures include frisking all patrons at the door. Pay police complement in-house security for large events such as July's speedboard races--traditionally attended by many local councillors.
According to a member of Dock's security, "we get up to 10,000 people here on a Saturday night."
A $200 to $500 fine under city noise bylaws is hardly a deterrent against the profit to be made from raves attended by crowds of 15,000.
As for the angry people who telephoned the homes of councillors Tom Jakobek and Sandra Bussin in the middle of the night: It's a story of too little, too late.
Although Bussin was not yet a city councillor in the spring of 1996 when city council granted The Docks the necessary permits to go into business, Tom Jakobek certainly was.