Time to lead on gun deaths
By rights the Canada Day weekend should have been a time for celebrating how safe and peaceful this country is. In Toronto, though, the deadly crackle of gunfire in the heart of the city overshadowed the joyous pop of fireworks.
This has been going on for far too long. The number of shooting deaths in the city is up 50 per cent over this time last year and criminologists fear this year is trending to surpass 2005, Toronto’s notorious “year of the gun” when 52 people were shot to death.
So far, though, we’re hearing little more than platitudes from our political leaders. What we need to see is a co-ordinated, well-thought-out plan involving all levels of government.
Mayor John Tory says he’s “damn mad” about what’s going on, as well he should be, but cautions that there are “no easy solutions” to combating gangs and gun crime. Police Chief Mark Saunders says his force “has a plan in play to look at it over the summer.”
This situation demands more urgent action. The mayor is on the right track by calling for a meeting with Premier Doug Ford and federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to address the spike in gun crime.
It will take a concerted effort by all three governments to address the problem. But Ford’s only public act so far has been to send out tweets lamenting the violence. His new attorney general, Caroline Mulroney, should make clear that the province stands ready to support Toronto in fighting the rise in violence.
Time is of the essence. As Chief Saunders warned on Tuesday, the shootings are becoming more “brazen,” occurring “in broad daylight on some of the busiest intersections in our city.”
Indeed, on Saturday night two menwere killed and a woman was injured in a horrifying daylight shooting on crowded Queen St. W. And on Sunday evening, four more people were wounded in Kensington Market.
Stopping the growth of gangs must be at the heart of any effective strategy. After all, as Tory and Saunders said on Tuesday, 75 to 90 per cent of the shootings in Toronto are in some way gang-related.
But however urgent the problem, the response must also be smart. Toronto reacted to the 2005 upsurge in gun violence by ramping up the police presence in some neighbourhoods, creating resentment through “over-policing.”
Those mistakes must be avoided. Saunders has taken a good first step by making clear the solution isn’t to saturate neighbourhoods with police, but to focus on “knowing who the players are.”
Ford, on the other hand, showed worrisome signs before he was officially sworn in as premier of simply advocating more and tougher policing as the solution. His government should not repeat the mistakes of the past.
As we have written before, Toronto doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to fighting gang-related violence. It should learn from the example of cities such as Glasgow, Boston and Minneapolis, which have seen a 50 to 65 per cent reduction in violence among gang members by mobilizing police, social agencies and public opinion.
The keys to successful efforts in those cities are a zerotolerance warning to gang members from police, an inspirational message from a community leader, and a pledge from social agencies that if youths do renounce violence they can get help with education, training and finding jobs.
At the same time, the federal government has an important role to play in helping to fund these efforts and cracking down on the trafficking of illegal guns.
Tory is right that there is no “magic wand” to reduce gun violence. But that doesn’t mean the solutions are unknown or out of reach. Right now, what’s missing is a sense of urgency at the top to take action before a serious situation turns into a real crisis.