Victoria Day Weekend a Sign of Things to Come??

Friends and family and their young childen visited us over this past long weekend and were grateful for the respite from the city traffic and chaos as they settled into Whistler's fresh mountain air, brilliant sunshine and promise of a peaceful time away from Vancouver.


That is until we visited Rainbow Park, Lakeside Park and other parks in Whistler, trying to find somewhere peaceful and safe for the kids - yes, I know that sounds ridiculous. If you live in Whistler you know what I mean. But throughout the Village and in the surrounding parks and on the trails, we literally bumped into or had to push through gangs of little and big punks! They were loud, obnoxious, rude and unruly, and mostly under the age of 25.


It it weren't for the local RCMP who were everywhere on patrol, God knows what would have been left of our precious mountain resort!
In fact, the hooligans broke into our local RCMP station, and fights abounded throughout the village until all hours of the morning, despite excellent cooperation between the RCMP and local bars.


The problem appears to be a result of certain Hotels and Resorts in Whistler who don't seem to care that our community safety goes down the toilet each time they allow gangs and groups of young punks in for a few dollars more.
Mark Munn, who is with the Hilton Resort and Spa in Whistler was someone with whom Bob Lorrimon, a local councillor in Whistler, chose to discuss the matter. Lorriman writes that the issue needs to be balanced, and I quote:"The young Lower Mainland guests can make up a significant portion of bookings for the weekend and the hotels need the revenue." (as published in Whistler's piquenewsmagazine.com


In my opinion, that is nonsense! Isn't the safety and well-being of our community far more important than bringing in accommodation revenue for a weekend.
So the hotels make more money, but the RCMP station gets broken into, people get stabbed, the punks are evicted from hotel rooms because they disturb other guests and so on. How does one "balance" this kind of situation?



As far as we are concerned "the young Lower Mainland" guests/gangs can stay just where they are.
If Whistlerites had wanted to live among gangs and continuous crime, they would be living in Surrey. There is a reason we chose to live here: we considered it safe for young families, and a peaceful haven from the big city rush.
And what about the Winter Games? Are we going to let gangs from the nether regions of BC invade and destroy our town during those two weeks?

It's going to take a lot more than "balance" to keep the trash out of Whistler.
I like Joey Gibbon's, of the Gibbons Hospitality Group's suggestion:


"...we put a roadblock up in Squamish and not let anyone up under 19..."