This letter was originally sent to the mayor and councillors for the Town of Antigonish
When I was out on Saturday morning at around 10:30, I saw numerous parties beginning in town ... on Highland Drive, Greening Drive, St. Mary’s Street, Hawthorne Street, St. Ninian’s Street and Church Street, to name a few.
I will admit that they were just getting started so there was not the chaos that there was last year. And the police presence was very visible. In fact, I can honestly say, I have not seen that many RCMP cars in this town at one time in several years.
As I was heading home around 12:30, the parties in town had gathered more people and the beer cans, bottles and cups were starting to build up on the lawns. However, after the football game, the students moved downtown. Here is a list of what some people noticed.
- Female students passed out on lawns in different sections of town
- Female students flashing their breasts at people driving
- A male student urinating at the end of the bridge near The Wheel
- A female student squatting and urinating at the other end of the bridge near The Wheel
- A male student sitting on the flower pot on Main Street next to Gabrieau’s, vomiting on Main Street and then pouring water over it to clean it up only to vomit again
- Students walking all over the road and blocking traffic.
- I was on the way to James Street from Greening Drive and there were six or seven students spread across walking on the street. I beeped the horn so that I could get through and one of them gave me the finger. When I said the road was here for cars and not for them to block the way, one of them yelled something vulgar to me.
- More garbage all over lawns
I don’t know how we can expect them to respect our town, when they don’t even respect themselves, which is abundantly clear by their actions.
They have to be made accountable for their actions. And, unfortunately, their actions are becoming more and more disgusting every year. The university does not allow them to party on campus, and so they let them loose on our community.
I realize that this is not all of the students, but there are a lot of students involved and they are certainly not making it look good for the rest.
Before I headed home at 12:30, I decided to go past the Bauer Theatre to see just what was happening there. At that time there was about 10 people there, most of which looked like they were working.
And after speaking to other people, it is my understanding that no one showed up at this very expensive party to which $4,000 of our tax money went towards. I’m sure St. F X will not be returning our money for the party that never was. It seems to me that whatever extra money the town had to spend for extra policing, our $4,000 would have been better spent to go towards that. Or better yet, St. F.X. should be paying the money for the extra policing.
I’m not sure what the answer is, but the town needs to stop spending our money to reward the bad behaviour of the students. It should not fall on the tax payers. St. F.X. should be paying for any damage that is done to our town by the students. Even if it means raising their tuition. At least then those that are responsible will be paying in the end.
Marina Anstey
