City still awaiting federal funds promised for programs to tackle gun violence,

PM has assured mayor that Ottawa remains committed to pledge

As a 12-year-old boy becomes the latest victim of gun violence in Toronto, promises of federal funding and a move to ban handguns have stalled, leaving the city with few new tools to reach at-risk youth or stem the flow of weapons to their hands.

“Even in the midst of a pandemic, we are still facing a crisis when it comes to gun violence,” said Coun. Josh Matlow, who has pushed for the city to fund programs that address the roots of youth violence.

“With COVID-19 we have seen how governments can place their focus and investments swiftly and deliberately when they choose to. Gun violence should be treated like the public health emergency it is.”

As news broke Thursday that a boy struck by a stray bullet in a quadruple shooting in northwest Toronto had died, the Star confirmed that the federal Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have yet to provide cities any of the $250 million in funding for community programs to tackle gun violence that was promised during the 2019 campaign.

“To crack down on gun crime and make our communities safer places to live, we will: continue to fight gang-related violence, by investing an additional $50 million each year, for five years, in a dedicated funding stream to help municipalities meet the needs of communities at risk,” the Liberal platform still says.

None of that money has flowed to Toronto or other cities.

Mayor John Tory said Thursday he’s been assured by Trudeau himself that the federal government remains committed to that pledge, but he’s worried how long it might take to be delivered because he has been told it will have to wait for the next budget cycle.

“I regret that, because I agree this is a very, very urgent situation,” he said in an interview by phone. “It’s taken quite a long time … It’s gotta come sooner than later. ”

Tory said he’d spoken with the boy’s mother when he was still in critical condition in hospital.

“I said to her that no family deserves heartbreak like this and tried to offer some degree of comfort and assistance to her.”

He said he’s also met with community members who say investments need to be made differently to directly benefit their neighbourhoods, as well as calling for more neighbourhood police officers.

Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair — the city’s former top cop

— earlier lamented the tragic shooting, saying the federal government would continue to work with its partners to end gun violence.

Asked this week about the lack of federal funding as promised for community programs, a spokesperson for Blair outlined other commitments made to address guns and gangs that are largely connected to policing — and not for what experts say are vital community programs like a city initiative that brings local leaders, city workers and others together to intervene directly with at-risk youth to prevent the chance of retaliation and further escalation.

“Fighting gun and gang violence is one of our government’s top priorities,” the statement from spokesperson Mary-Liz Power said.

“Everyone should feel safe where they live. In the 2019 election, we committed to investing $250 million over five years in a dedicated funding stream to help municipalities meet the needs of communities at risk. Work to fulfil this commitment is ongoing.”

When it comes to gun control and policing gun trafficking, there has been much talk, but little in the way of firm action on handguns.

Effective May 1, more than 1,500 types of assault-style long guns and gun parts of certain rifles are now prohibited. An amnesty is in place until April 30, 2022 for people who were legal owners of the newly prohibited guns.

The federal strategy on firearm and gangs has focused on strengthening laws related to legal firearms, enhancing preventative measures at borders to stop the flow of illegal firearms and a listening tour on potential solutions.

Since 2013, Canada has seen a near doubling of gang-related homicides in larger cities and some, like Montreal and Toronto, have called for handgun bans.

In the Liberal federal throne speech, the government announced plans to allow cities to declare municipal bans — something not yet initiated — but, short of a national ban, critics see such measures as largely symbolic and ineffective.

Not even a pandemic has stemmed the gun and gang violence.

In 2020 alone, five youth under the age of 20 were killed. One was 16 years old. Two were 15 years old.

At a 2018 federal summit on gun and gang violence, more than 180 stakeholders convened to address the issue, yet another in a series of inquiries into a well-studied problem.

In Ontario in 2008, Roy McMurty and Alvin Curling released the report Roots of Youth Violence, commissioned by the province after Toronto experienced a spike in gun violence in 2005. The province was at a “crossroads,” they found. Ontario, they wrote, was “incubating an increase in youth violence, and in more serious violence. These trends are deeply troubling.”

They found increased concentration of violent crime in young people, greater use of guns and knives to settle disputes, disadvantaged neighbourhoods trapped in downward cycles of violence and a citizenry inclined to write off the youth rather than see them as victims.

Solutions, they concluded, involve individual interventions for youth who are immediately at risk by integrating community support networks and programming that have been proven to be effective.

Beyond the immediate fixes, McMurtry and Curling identified long-term fixes as the need to bring youth-related parts of the government together, enhance social opportunities, tackle racism, listen to youth, and build and enhance community hubs.

“Study after study has concluded that investing into the roots of youth violence including poverty, racialization, mental health and a lack of opportunities for young people is the only way to prevent these shootings from happening again,” Matlow said.

He said the city already has the answers to this problem, but lacks proper funding and motivation on the part of governments.