A Scarborough councillor who spearheaded a ban on kites in a northeast Toronto park is calling on officials to vote this fall to ban the dangerous string used by kite fighters at every park in the city.
Coun. Chin Lee, who spearheaded the ban on kites in Milliken Park that took effect two weeks ago, said the string, which is often laced with metal or glass, is widely available at most dollar stores across the city.
Lee said the ban, which angered many in the local Afghan-Canadian community who poured into the park every weekend to engage in kite fighting, is about preventing injuries to local residents.
"What happened in Milliken Park is that it became the magnet that attracted all the kite fighters and they left all the dangerous strings around," Lee told CTV Toronto.
The city banned all kites from Milliken Park, a 32-hectare green space in the city's northeast end that had become a favourite site for kite-fighting competitions popular with Toronto's large Afghan community.
Every weekend, dozens of families, many of Afghan heritage, gathered at the park to picnic and watch skilled kite-fliers engage in aerial battles to slice their opponents' strings.
The ban was enacted administratively, meaning without the approval of city council, after local residents complained the park was littered with the sharp, severed strings after kite fighters packed up and went home.
While kite fighters insisted they cleaned up after themselves, a CTV News camera found bunches of sharp string around the park on Tuesday, despite the two-week-old ban.
Some kite-fighting groups have moved to a downtown park since the ban in Milliken Park. They say one solution is to assign a designated kite-flying area in every park.
Lee met with Parks and Recreation officials Tuesday to discuss a solution to the controversy. There is no word on when, or if, a compromise will be reached.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Dana Levenson
