As youth spaces close, safety concerns rise

Recent shooting death highlights risks young people face amid lockdown

The call for a shooting came in late Sunday, sending police and paramedics rushing to the scene. Inside a car parked near the Leaside outdoor pool, next to a taped- off playground, was a young man suffering from gun- shot wounds. He was 16 years old.

It was too late. Nazirullah Abdul-Rashid was pronounced dead on scene, becoming the city’s 19th homicide victim.

As crime has dropped in some major categories in Toronto, shootings and homicides have continued unabated. Between March 1 and April 6, 26 people have been shot in Toronto, four fatally. The year- to- date tally of homicides is the highest it has been since 2016.

That a 16-year-old boy was gunned down in a locked- down city is particularly worrying to youth workers and community advocates. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the mass closure of drop- ins, youth hubs and aa community centres across the city, they worry vulnerable young yy people may have a higher likelihood of becoming victimized or involved in violence.

“To me, it’s a huge thing that there isn’t a place for these kids to go right now,” said Fiona Scott, a Toronto youth crime prevention researcher.

“The coronavirus makes it more difficult for these kids to survive — the shootings, the homicides, there’s no pause button on it,” said Louis March, the founder of the Zero Gun Vio- lence Movement.

In a statement Tuesday, Mayor John Tory sent condolences to Abdul-Rashid’s family and friends, saying “the murder of a 1 16-year-old in our city is heart- breaking.”

“I understand people are frustrated with community centres being closed, but they have been closed, based on professional advice from our medical officer of health, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our community, and to save many lives and protect our healthcare system from being overwhelmed.”

Tory said the city is working to continue outreach to at- risk young people and deliver anti-violence programs online. Su- san Pape, a city spokesperson, said “efforts are being made to still provide … resources for youth who are willing to engage with trusted adults and peers.”

“I want all these closures to end as soon as possible,” added Tory, “but that will only be pos- sible once we have won the fight against COVID-19.”

Even before the pandemic forced the closure of youth spaces citywide, Scott said there were insufficient places for young people. She notes the importance of youth spaces was underscored in a seminal 2008 report by former Liberal MPP Alvin Curling on the roots of youth violence.

With nowhere to go, youth have “no positive outlet for their energy and time, no space or facilities for creative self- expression, and no place that fosters contact with coaches and other positive mentors,” Curling wrote in his report.

The risk to these youth is then increased by other known factors that lead to violence that will be exacerbated by the pan- demic, including poverty, lack of economic opportunity for youth and family issues, Scott said.

“Because a lot of services are lacking, people are just going to go back to what they used to do,” said Eddy Martinez, a care manager with the Yonge Street Mission’s Evergreen Centre for Street Youth and co- ordinator of the Helping Offenders on Probation Excel ( HOPE) program. Martinez was a mentor to Mamadou Drame, a timid 25year- old man who was shot dead near Ryerson University on March 21. Martinez described Drame as a quiet man who ww had benefited from Evergreen’s drop- in a few years ago, before he stopped attending after the facility moved.

Now that option isn’t available to anyone. Evergreen’s drop- in has closed amid the pandemic. It is still operating its food program as a takeaway service, however, as well as dropping off meals to encampments for young people who are sleeping rough. Meanwhile, street care managers like Martinez are doing their best to maintain connections with youth, mainly by calling them.

They are also moving some services online, like counselling and anger management, as are other youth programming providers. The city- run Community Healing Project has been hosting workshops for youth via video conferencing platform Zoom. Toronto’s RISE movement, a popular arts collective for youth, has started streaming weekly events on Instagram.