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Seems it wasn’t all good vibes at the Big Nation party at Life Nightclub last Saturday. Patrons faced with paying $4 a bottle for water say the club at 270 Richmond West deliberately prevented dancers from refilling their bottles in the bathrooms. Several partygoers complain that the water temperature in the bathroom sinks was set to scalding at the start of the evening, forcing people to buy all their water from the bar. Some who couldn’t afford to do so eventually resorted to filling their bottles from the toilet tanks. Once the water from the taps had cooled down enough to drink, revellers say a bouncer was stationed in the bathroom to physically keep people from filling their bottles.
Kim Stanford of the Toronto Dance Safety Committee says the city protocol on raves and dances stipulates that water must be readily available to dancers to prevent dehydration.
“We would be very concerned about the health implications of that sort of practice,” says Stanford when told of the Life partiers’ account. She says that while the TDSC cannot enforce any of its recommendations, there are health and safety regulations that nightclubs and other party venues must follow.
Mary Margaret Crapper of the public health department says they have not received any complaints about Life specifically or any other nightspot in the club district. “You might consider water a health issue, but it isn’t really something we would look into.”
When NOW called, no one was answering the phone at Life, which is open Thursday to Sunday.
