Police used pepper spray on girl arrested at CNE Youth Day

By News Staff

Three people were arrested after the Canadian National Exhibition closed early on Youth Day.

Two of those arrested have since been released, Toronto police told CityNews on Wednesday.

A 16-year-old girl is charged with two counts of assaulting a police officer and obstructing a police officer, a 16-year-old boy is charged with assaulting a police officer and failing to comply with recognizance, and a 17-year-old boy is charged with possession.

Police said that they used pepper spray on the teenage girl who was arrested.

“Fortunately it didn’t evolve into anything really serious but it had the potential to, even with people running out of the grounds and so forth,” Mayor John Tory told CityNews on Wednesday.

“I think that a full review done by the people in charge as to what the problem was and how you could resolve it is exactly what’s called for. I look forward to [the CNE’s] objective, informed report.”

Timeline: What happened on CNE Youth Day?

Rides and games were shut down as dozens of police officers entered the grounds to disperse crowds at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The fair usually closes its doors at 10 p.m., but continues operating activities until midnight. The organization linked the closure to ‘overcrowding.’

Kevin Proulx says he witnessed a number of groups fighting and people panicked after hearing what appeared to be gunshots.

“It was like multiple groups fighting, there were people punching and shoving and then I heard the word gun. I never heard one but there were a lot of those balloon games things breaking and I think people panicked,” said Proulx.

People on social media reported hearing gunshots at the CNE, but police found no evidence of a shooting.

“They were just running everywhere. We nearly got trampled. And I don’t want to fault the CNE but they shut off all the lights. There was no communications,” said Proulx.

Toronto police said Wednesday that 100 officers from 10 different divisions were called in for fights or crowd control.

“The paid duty officers that were there were not enough to cover such a large fight that unfortunately breaks out,” Const. Victor Kwong told CityNews. “It was them that requested the assistance of on-duty officers and it is something that Toronto Police always monitor and keep in the back of our mind so we do have enough assets to redeploy if something like this, like it did last night, happen.”

Officers said they were at the CNE around 8:45 p.m. to arrest a man. During the arrest, a large group of people surrounded the officers, police allege. The police left and the crowd followed. The girl, police allege, “began to push a barricade towards the officers and the man in custody.”

She also allegedly attempted to punch and kick one of the officers. That’s when police used peppery spray. Police arrested the girl as well as the man and took them both away from the crowd.

It’s not known why the man was arrested.

CNE general manager Virginia Ludy told CityNews they had “ample resources” in place for the anticipated crowds.

“There were some minor altercations that took place amongst the crowd. The crowd knew each other,” explained Ludy.

“When I was down at the Midway, they were greeting each other and then they started to form into these groups and then you saw some of the activities that you just saw take place and then they moved on to another part of the Midway and those behaviours would repeat themselves and they became more and more frequent and that’s when we made the decision that we were going to shut down the Midway early.”

The fair was hosting its annual Youth Day, which offers reduced $6 cover for fair-goers 17 years and under before 3 p.m.

Correction: It was initially reported that two people were arrested after the incident at Dufferin and King. In fact, they were arrested at the CNE. No arrests have been made in the stabbing.

Read the full statement from the CNE below:
Statement provided by Canadian National Exhibition about an early closure on August 30, 2016. CNE.

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