Comments on: Party’s over: Frats may lose rooming house exemption

By: Sororities and fraternities targeted by Vaughan | One Stop News Stand

Sororities and fraternities targeted by Vaughan | One Stop News Stand — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 11:51:57 +0000

[…] Vaughan, Councillor of Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina, spearheaded the changes last June, citing noise complaints about frat houses lining Prince Arthur Avenue, a street otherwise filled […]

By: Mark Morency

Mark Morency — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:58:38 +0000

Someone above said “Obviously Mr. Vaughan has never been the member of a fraternity. ” How could he have been? He’s never been to university. Adam Vaughan operates this way and has done the same thing to businesses and groups that he doesn’t like by abusing every code he can think of as an excuse to change the rules, then claims that people who were never advised knew about it in advance. He did the same thing with condo owners over the G20, holding meetings without advising residents, then claiming everybody present was on his side. He has told businesses that apply for various licenses and variations that they can do it, then after they spend in some cases I spoke to, $100,000 to prepare, one hour before it goes to committee, a “complaint” magically shows up. Make sure you do something about this on October 25. Vote Adam Vaughan out. Vote for Mike Yen, and he will do what he can to get this decision reversed.

By: Tyler Steel

Tyler Steel — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:38:38 +0000

So what is the heart of the issue, that Frat Houses rent out to non-members but are not considered rooming houses and how will changing a Fraternity house to a rooming house help Police to deal with unruly persons?
Or is this new bylaw, which was never advised to my knowledge to any Fraternity in the Greater Toronto Area, aimed at curbing behaviour that existed in the 70’s and 80’s where it was the actions of a person, not a group?
For fire code complaince, has anyone verified with the Fire Marshall’s office to the strict regulations they place on Fraternity houses already and what they have done to comply with the Fire Marshall’s orders so they don’t get fined or force to be closed?
Councilor Vaughan, I am confused as to the specific reasons why and can you provide more details please, a lot of us are in the dark on this one here.

By: Seamus Murphy

Seamus Murphy — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:25:50 +0000

I want to agree with what is posted above. I wouldnt rehash the above arguements made by Brother Tyler. But I will pose a question. I have seen alot of student houses where a batch of students rent property. These student houses are run alot worse then what a frat house is. So why not ban these too.

By: Daryl C. Collison

Daryl C. Collison — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:09:20 +0000

Obviously Mr. Vaughan has never been the member of a fraternity. Were he, he would realize that there is more to a fraternal organization than the frat boy mentality that he is claiming is so upsetting to life in the Annex.

I was a member of the class of 1986 at Canada’s National Fraternity, Phi Kappa Pi. I forged lifelong friendships and learned the foundation of living away from home whilst I shared a beautiful home with a number of like minded young men. Granted there was some partying that went on, but also EVERY man I went through that house with graduated and went on to become hard working productive members of society.

Recently, through a few bad decisions and an economic downturn, I was left with the need of a place to live. Luckily I was able to lean on the shoulders of my new brothers and they provided me with a roof over my head so that I could get back in shape and find my footing. Had my new brothers not been available to me, I do not know what might have become of me.

Fraternities are more than party houses. They help to teach new groups of young men skills and basic tenements of life when they leave home. And sharing that experience with a number of men serves to strengthen them and provide a foundation for the hard academic road ahead and then the highway of life.

I would ask before Adam Vaughan decides to ruin what has been mostly a personal growth organization over the decades with a much UNdeserved smack in the face, that he talk with a few ‘newbies’ and a couple legacies and see what fraternal living is all about.

By: Mark Goldstein

Mark Goldstein — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:19:45 +0000

I find it interesting that nobody complained about said “frat” boys when entire chapters enlisted for military service with our Canadian Forces in both World Wars this past century. A Toronto based “frat boy” wrote the poem In Flanders Fields. Go to Soldier’s Tower at the University of Toronto and many of the names of those who fell are “frat boys.” Generalizing an entire community based on a few negligable incidents is institutionalized discrimination, something our forefathers fought so hard against so we can enjoy the standard of living we do today.

By: Tyler Haggerty

Tyler Haggerty — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:27:30 +0000

I am the current president of my fraternity and the outgoing president of the University of Toronto Fraternity and Sorority Council and I want to say that Adam Vaughan is lying when he says that the fraternities have been notified. I nor anyone from the building holding corporation, alumni association, or the national council of my fraternity have received anything regarding this change. Only through this article and word of mouth in the past few days have any of the Greek Letter Organizations found out about this change to the by-laws. This has been in the works for at least 6 months. That amount of time should have been ample time to inform all the fraternities and sororities of the changes and thus given time to comply with the new requirements but this has not happened. It is obvious from his commentary that Counselor Vaughan does not like fraternities in the Annex and it seems that he is trying to pass this bylaw candidly right before the school year starts. Adam Vaughan must follow protocol and procedure before he can make any amendments to the bylaws, which, due to a so-called “bureaucratic error”, has not happened. I agree that not all fraternities are exemplary model adults but the few that cause the problems should be held responsible rather than trying to eradicate all of the 20+ houses in the area. If this bylaw is passed several hundred U of T and Ryerson students will be put to the curb.