Canada: A shooting at a downtown Toronto building which left three young men dead and two others injured has renewed calls for action on stricter regulations on short term rental units.
Global News revealed that local police were called to a shooting late on Friday night to the 32nd floor of a condo building on Queens Wharf Road at Fork York Boulevard.
Three men, two of which were pronounced dead on the scene, were 19, 20, and 22 years old.
A fourth victim was rushed to hospital with a gunshot wound, while a fifth victim was treated for minor injuries.
DS Henry Marsman said that the victims were attending a party within the building, which was rented out using Airbnb.
UPDATE: BBC reports that in response to the shooting, Airbnb will be limiting under-25s in Canada from renting whole properties. This hopes to not only improve safety, but cut down on the number of “party houses” an issue that has been plaguing the platform.
In the past year, several violent incidents have occurred in the Toronto area: a shooting at an Etobicoke party in April; a shooting outside a party in Bridle Path in August; and a shooting outside a party near Danforth in December.
Only last month, a shooting at a downtown Ottawa Airbnb rental killed an 18-year old man. Three others were treated for serious injuries.
As reported by Global News, City Councillor, Joe Cressy, said: “The City of Toronto, over the course of two years, developed very clear bylaws around Airbnbs and the rules state the following: that only people can use their primary residence as an Airbnb.
“Unfortunately, those rules are under an active appeal and so the City of Toronto [has] formally called on short-term property owners and companies like Airbnb to immediately de-list all of these multiple listings — what we call “ghost hotels”– because the incident we saw Friday night, this was not the first time we’ve seen this,” he added.
According to CBC News, Airbnb has banned the booking guest from its platform, and the listing has been suspended pending further investigation.
Last year, Airbnb announced a ban on “party houses” following a fatal Halloween shooting in California.
