A zombie horde numbering in the thousands will march through Ottawa's downtown later this month, but the walking corpses will be barred from roaming Beechwood Cemetery.
Beechwood executive director Roger Boult says organizers of the Ottawa zombie walk were warned not to let participants wander on to the cemetery property.
“Many of our families find the idea of the zombie walk to be disrespectful,” said Boult in an e-mail.
“We have contacted the organizers to advise them that we will not permit participants to assemble on our property.”
He says Beechwood does not want to be associated with the event at all.
But Katie Schultz, he organizer of this year’s event, says “it’s just good Halloween fun,” adding that the group has always gathered just outside the cemetery gates.
The annual zombie walk began in 2005 and takes place every year around Halloween. Un-dead enthusiasts dressed as zombies and march from Beechwood Cemetery to Parliament Hill through the ByWard Market.
However, Jasna Jennings, executive director for the ByWard Market Business Improvement Area, says that last year the march left blood stains through the market that had people thinking someone was murdered.
“In the span of about three blocks, meters were covered in fake blood, signs were covered in fake blood, sidewalks and fronts of buildings [were covered]…one building had to have the fake blood removed because it had seeped in to the stonework,” she says.
Jennings says city crews spent most of the week cleaning up and no one seemed to know what had happened.
“They’re having fun and I think that’s great. Dress up walk through [the market] . . . but there’s no reason to leave a trail of carnage behind you,” she says.
Jennings says businesses may be interested in working with the zombies and that like other parades or protests the walk should have to post notifications and plan properly.
Some people, such as Rideau Centre general manager, Cindy Vanbuskirk, are more used to the shuffling horde.
“We’ve been accommodating them, but they’ve just been passing through and they certainly have not created any disturbance . . . historically.”
Rideau Centre security monitors the march but Ottawa police have no record of the event.
According to Const. Jean Paul Vincelette all events are supposed to apply for a permit through the city. He says police have no record of a permit in the past, and no application for one has been made this year.
The walks, which take place around the world, are organized through Internet chat boards and social networking as part of a growing zombie subculture.
In previous years, the Ottawa walk came together on www.punkottawa.com but this year Schultz took the reins.
She says the walk is growing each year and is likely to continue. Schultz expects this year’s march will have close to 1,300 zombies.
Although the walks are not meant to be an official event, some like the one in London, Ont., do have an online code of conduct.
In the capital, Jennings hopes this year’s horde will show a little more “respect for the neighbourhood.”