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Hess Village and marijuana dispensaries take centre stage at Hamilton council meeting

Hess Village, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Hess Village, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Klaus Lang / Getty Images

The fate of the paid duty policing program in Hess Village will be front and centre when Hamilton city council meets Wednesday.

Council has the final say after the planning committee voted 7-2 last week to scrap the program, in which bars within the entertainment district pay for special duty officers.

Police Chief Eric Girt has written to councillors, urging them to keep the program going.

He indicates that rowdy behaviour in Hess Village accounts for more than half of downtown Hamilton’s police calls. There have been 675 calls in the area from January to September this year.

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Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr has argued otherwise in seeking to end the program. “We’re moving away from the past known entertainment district [of Hess], to one of mixed use with restaurants and nightclubs.”

Farr added that the area still attracts younger crowds.

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Council is also expected to discuss a crackdown on so-called “illegal” marijuana dispensaries in Hamilton.

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The owner of three such shops has argued that would be a waste of time, money and resources, suggesting they are operating within a “grey” area.

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