A St. Lazare man says he now has the okay from police to keep his popular Halloween display up — and to have families go to visit on Halloween night.
Last Saturday, officers with the Surete du Quebec paid a visit to Scott Trainor's front lawn, after about 300 families turned out to see his annual display, which is set up in three Tempos. The police told him if anyone, or any family crossed the threshold inside one of the Tempos, they would be taking part in an indoor gathering — and could theoretically face fines under Quebec's COVID-19 regulations.
He contacted the SQ again Monday morning about the display, with no success. Then, something changed.
"I did go a bit further, I did get a call back from one of the higher-ups, and I spoke with them again [Tuesday]," Trainor said. "We have come to the agreement that it's not to go on during the week, it's going to go on on Halloween night, which was how we planned it to be. And as long as we're practicing the same social distancing measures, the hand sanitizing, the one family at a time, and such, then we will be allowed to continue with no tickets issued."
He says he'll also be giving out candy for the Halloween night event on Saturday — it'll be distributed through a chute.
Trainor says a private security company, Diligence Security, has also offered to provide security for the event, at no charge, to make sure everyone is following the rules.