HoCo street party fines target popular YouTuber, but he vows to return in 2022
A month after the unsanctioned homecoming party on Broughdale Avenue, near Western University campus, many partygoers face a financial hangover.
City Hall has issued 38 fines totalling $29,000 -- with some Administrative Monetary Penalty notices arriving in the mail as recently as last week.
Two of those fines were just sent to YouTuber/Podcaster Jack Denmo, who launched his online career filming rowdy street parties including HoCo.
“I ain’t paying!” Denmo tells CTV News London. “What I’m going to do is dispute it. Go in and meet with whoever I need to.”
“We are very concerned about the posting of dangerous events on social media platforms such as YouTube,” explains Orest Katolyk, director of Municipal Law Enforcement at City Hall.
Not speaking specifically about Denmo, Katolyk says online videos can fuel unsanctioned parties and dangerous behaviour.
Thirty people were hospitalized at homecoming parties around Western University last month.
“The 15 minutes of fame could easily translate into more than 15 minutes in the back of an ambulance,” he warns.
Katolyk adds that TikTok has started removing rowdy party videos that display dangerous behaviour.
“They are starting to lay down the hammer on this kind of documentation of rowdy behaviour,” admits Denmo. “But realistically this has been going on since universities began, the only difference is now people film it and put it online.”
Denmo’s 2019 video from Broughdale Avenue has garnered more than 717,000 views on YouTube.
He says the combined $1,300 fine wouldn’t impact his online business model, but City Hall’s efforts to crack down on the party have crossed the line.
“It changes my opinion of the country. I don’t want to live in a place where I’m not allowed to walk down the road, or drink a beer on my front lawn. That just sounds crazy whether or not it’s HoCo.”
Denmo believes his videos attract students to attend the schools where he films.
Repeat offenders could see fines doubled according to City Hall, but he vows to be back in September 2022.
“It absolutely does not change anything for me coming there in the future.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Thanks to wildfires, air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
BREAKING Roy McMurtry, former Ontario attorney general, dies at 91
CTV News has confirmed that former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry has died.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.