The Club Where the Drake Afterparty Shootings Occurred Has a Controversial Safety Record

A version of this article originally appeared on VICE Canada.

Early Tuesday morning, two people in their 20s were shot and killed at and around Muzik nightclub at Exhibition Place in Toronto. It was the second shooting in two years to occur at the venue on the night of an official OVO Fest afterparty hosted by Drake.

Zlatko Starkovski, the club's owner, has a history of attempting to ban all-ages parties of a certain genre—EDM—in the same area the club calls home. He even got help trying to do so through his politcal connections to then-Toronto mayor Rob Ford and outspoken City Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti. But to Starkovski's critics, in both the dance music community and in city council, he was really just staging the protest in order to remove his competition. Starkovski's argument, and one loudly repeated by Mammoliti to any camera in spitting distance, centered on the accusation that all-ages EDM parties expose teens to drug dealers and sex offenders.

"What you're saying is it's better for 13-14-year-olds to do drugs in a safe place… It's absolutely ludicrous," Starkovski said in a 2014 statement. "Allowing these events such as raves… not only damages our good work, but that of the Exhibition Place being a location for top notch entertainment and hospitality and events."

But Starkovski's events have had more than enough problems over the years and have arguably done a lot of their own damage to Exhibition Place's reputation. In addition to the official OVO Fest afterparty that has ended in shootings two years in a row, there was a shooting after an event at Muzik in February 2013 that left a 19-year-old man dead outside the club. And that's not to mention the time Rob Ford was seen doing lines of blow in Muzik's washroom.

Though he's denied it at times, Starkovski is rumored to be pals with Toronto's former crack-smoking mayor and current city councillor. The Toronto Star reported in May 2014 "that Zlatko Starkovski has told staff at the club that 'Rob Ford is our best customer. His money is no good here.'" Muzik has also supplied Ford's FordFest parties with booze in the past.

On April 11, 2014, the ban Mammoliti introduced was passed, albeit temporarily, and he and Starkovski had their wish granted. Much to their dismay, the ban was lifted less than a month later; Starkovski's competition and the supposed blemish on Exhibition Place would be allowed to return.

"How many more have to die before we finally accept these EDM events cannot be held on government lands or anywhere else?" Mammoliti was quoted saying in the Toronto Sun in August 2014, months after the ban had been lifted. His statement was made following the drug-related deaths of two young people at VELD festival the first weekend of August 2014 in Downsview Park, Toronto. The two victims were 20 and 22 years old—close to the ages of those shot and killed this week at the OVO afterparty, 23 and 26.

But the big difference here is that those who take drugs at any sort of party have usually made the personal choice to engage in an activity that has risks—it just comes with the territory. Around 3:20 AM Tuesday of this week, 26-year-old Ariela Navarro-Fenoy did not choose to become a victim of gun violence. She was an innocent bystander who had made every effort to get into a cab to escape the gunfire-laden scene that had broken out at Muzik (a cabbie refused to give her a ride since her short-distance trip would have only made him $8).

The other victim killed Tuesday was Duvel Hibbert, 23, who had been awaiting trial on drug charges in both Toronto and Brampton, Ontario. He was set to appear in court this week for the Toronto charges, including possession and trafficking of cocaine. Three others were injured in the shooting.

When VICE contacted Muzik for a comment from Starkovski about the shootings, a spokesperson who signed his email simply as "Jeff," replied, "You're raising a number of other points, which we can address in the fullness of time, but at this point we are focused on assisting the Toronto Police Service with their investigation."

In the official press release put out on Tuesday, Muzik claimed that among other security measures, including the constant presence of police and medical responders, handheld metal detectors were used on all patrons entering the property in addition to the average patdown. The Toronto Star reported that a gun may have been brought into the afterparty over a security fence.

Muzik has had more than 12 lawsuits filed against it since 2007, many related to violent incidents. One statement of claim from a lawsuit reads: "The defendants… knew or ought to have known that this after-party would cause or foster an environment of unusual danger… knowing that Muzik Nightclub has a history of violence, and failed to implement proper security measures."

Mammoliti and Ford did not respond to VICE's requests for comment.

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