#TorontoStrong fund to open an account for Danforth victims

The #TorontoStrong fund will be coordinating fundraising efforts for the victims of the Danforth shooting, the city has announced.

In a statement released Friday, Mayor John Tory said the fund is opening a designated account for donations to the victims of last Sunday’s shooting, which left two people dead and 13 injured.

“No city should have to experience the grief and tragedy that Toronto has faced in these two incidents,” Tory said, adding the fund allows people to support the victims in a “transparent, accountable way.”

The initial #TorontoStrong fund, which is a partnership between the city and the Toronto Foundation, was created less than 24 hours after the van rampage on Yonge St. that killed 10 people and injured 16 last spring. It co-ordinated with GoFundMe pages that had al- ready sprung up to raise funds after the tragedy. The announcement of the Danforth fund comes five days after the shooting that rocked the vibrant eastend street. A handful of GoFundMe pages have already been created. They have raised roughly $300,000 in total.

Experts say the discrepancy between the amount raised so far for victims of the Danforth shooting and what was raised for van attack victims in the same amount of time may be due to the delay in setting up a city-supported fund, or to possible “donor fatigue” after a string of tragedies. Sandra Train, a Toronto lawyer who represents some of the victims of the van attack, said fundraising efforts for the van attack victims were so successful largely because they were centrally co-ordinated very early.

“You have a lot of people that are not on social media, but would be donating if the city was collecting money at the Beer Store and grocery store counters,” Train said.