hanlans toronto

Video shows ridiculous brawl at Toronto beach this weekend

Hanlan's Point Beach on the Toronto Islands seems to have become in summer 2021 what Cherry Beach was at the same time last year: a spot for rowdy, overcrowded parties and other decried antics amid the pandemic.

Though there has not (yet) been anything quite as terrifying as blood-covered men wandering the public space with chainsaws, in the past couple of weeks alone there has been one brutal assault that left a person unconscious and requiring surgery, and a number of instances of partiers packed shoulder to shoulder despite gathering restrictions.

And where there are throngs of strangers congregating to drink all day in the sun after months of stringent lockdown, there is, of course, bound to be trouble.

Take this past weekend, for example, when hundreds of people trekked to Hanlan's to enjoy the sand and sun on Saturday afternoon — and a multi-person brawl ensued by the evening.

In footage taken by a bystander who cited the beach getting progressively more crowded as a DJ performed, the fight broke out between two groups over some unknown disagreement.

The onlooker said that a few were left bloodied and broken, and he called 911 for assistance as a result.

"I explained that there was fight and the crowd was around 300 people.
They asked me if I saw any weapons and I said no. And then they hung up on me," the individual, who sent the footage to blogTO and who asked to remain anonymous, said.

"By midnight, another fight [started] and the DJ table was down. My girlfriend called the police and they never showed up."

In the minute-long video, a group of five men can be seen throwing punches at one another while entangled on the ground, dance music playing loudly in the background.

A few who step in to try and tear the brawlers off of each other appear to get pulled in as well as various others yell and even cheer.

"Quit it, you're being ridiculous," one beachgoer can be heard screaming as the filmer reaches down to help retrieve some of the belongings thrown in the altercation.

Even though those involved are successfully pulled apart at one point, the fight continues on with additional people coming into the mix. The video cuts off after nearly one minute, just as two men are thrown to the ground and told to "get the f*ck away" overtop bystander screams.

The whole ordeal appears pretty dramatic, but unfortunately not all that surprising as far as drunk summer behaviour goes in Toronto, especially amid COVID when many of us are perhaps a little rusty as far as knowing how to act in public anymore.

It is unknown if anyone suffered any major injuries aside from, inevitably, a few bruised egos.

Lead photo by

Submitted to blogTO


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