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Originally Posted by dksuddeth
can you post any kind of link for that stat? I'd like to read the report please.
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here is what I could dig up in the short term:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/am...nada.crime.ap/
full story below
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=TorontoHome
full story below
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TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Canadian officials, seeking to make sense of another fatal shooting in what has been a record year for gun-related deaths, said Tuesday that along with a host of social ills, part of the problem stemmed from what they said was the United States exporting its violence.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Toronto Mayor David Miller warned that Canada could become like the United States after gunfire erupted Monday on a busy street filled with holiday shoppers, killing a 15-year-old girl and wounding six bystanders -- the latest victims in a record surge in gun violence in Toronto.
The shooting stemmed from a dispute among a group of 10 to 15 youth, and the victim was a teenager out with a parent near a popular shopping mall, police said Tuesday.
"I think it's a day that Toronto has finally lost its innocence," Det. Sgt. Savas Kyriacou said. "It was a tragic loss and tragic day."
While many Canadians take pride in Canadian cities being less violent than their American counterparts, Toronto has seen 78 murders this year, including a record 52 gun-related deaths -- almost twice as many as last year.
"What happened yesterday was appalling. You just don't expect it in a Canadian city," the mayor said.
"It's a sign that the lack of gun laws in the U.S. is allowing guns to flood across the border that are literally being used to kill people in the streets of Toronto," Miller said.
Miller said Toronto, a city of nearly three million, is still very safe compared to most American cities, but the illegal flow of weapons from the United States is causing the noticeable rise in gun violence.
"The U.S. is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto," he said.
Miller said that while almost every other crime in Toronto is down, the supply of guns has increased and half of them come from the United States.
Miller said the availability of stolen Canadian guns is another problem, and that poverty in certain Toronto neighborhoods is a root cause.
"There are neighborhoods in Toronto where young people face barriers of poverty, discrimination and don't have real hope and opportunity. The kind of programs that we once took for granted in Canada that would reach out to young people have systematically disappeared over the past decade and I think that gun violence is a symptom of a much bigger problem," Miller said.
The escalating violence prompted the prime minister to announce earlier this month that if re-elected on January 23, his government would ban handguns. With severe restrictions already in place against handgun ownership, many criticized the announcement as politics.
Martin, who says up to half of the gun crimes in Canada involve weapons brought in illegally from the United States, raised the smuggling problem when he met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in October.
Martin offered his condolences in a statement Tuesday, saying he was horrified by the shootings.
"What we saw yesterday is a stark reminder of the challenge that governments, police forces and communities face to ensure that Canadian cities do not descend into the kind of rampant gun violence we have seen elsewhere," Martin said.
John Thompson, a security analyst with the Toronto-based Mackenzie Institute, says the number of guns smuggled from the United States is a problem, but that Canada has a gang problem -- not a gun problem -- and that Canada should stop pointing the finger at the United States.
"It's a cop out. It's an easy way of looking at one symptom rather than addressing a whole disease," Thompson said.
Two suspects were arrested and at least one firearm was seized soon after the shootings Monday. Kyriacou said it was an illegal handgun.
Three females and four males were injured, including one male who is in critical condition. Police believe they were bystanders.
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Toronto sets a new record for gun-related carnage
Ken Regular, CTV.ca News
Toronto has almost doubled its number of gun-related homicides over last year: There were 27 in all of 2004. Going into Boxing Day, there were 77 murders, 51 of which involved firearms.
While there have been plenty of terrible incidents to shock this city of 2.5 million, fate had at least one more up its sleeve.
The Boxing Day shootings on bustling Yonge Street just north of the Eaton Centre sent shoppers ducking for cover, left six people wounded and claimed the life of a 15-year-old girl. A bullet struck the teenager in the head during a shopping expedition with her family.
She became a grim statistic -- the 52nd person killed by gunfire and 78th homicide victim in Toronto's Year of the Gun.
The next day, Det. Sgt. Savas Kyriacou said that the city is experiencing a dramatic change.
"Toronto has finally lost its innocence," he told reporters during a Dec. 27 news conference.
A murderous year
Boxing Day's violent scene is the latest in a string of brazen attacks using firearms.
On Nov. 18, Amon Beckles was gunned down on the steps of a church, while the funeral for his friend Jamal Hemmings -- another shooting victim -- was happening inside.
In the days that followed, the community tried to understand how violence could reach the doorstep of a house of worship.
Beckles' mother summed up what many people were feeling during an interview with CTV Toronto's Desmond Brown.
"This violence has to stop, and I hope and pray it will stop," Nadia Beckles said on Nov. 21.
At various other times, people have been shot in broad daylight, gunned down in drive-by attacks, and murdered in parking lots and secluded alleys.
Many suggestions for peace
Community leaders have not settled on a strategy for peace in the streets, although many solutions for curbing gun violence were proposed in 2005.
In late November, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler tabled legislation to increase minimum sentences for some gun crimes and create tougher parole rules for gun crime offenders. However, the proposed legislation did not become law because the government fell in a non-confidence vote.
Just days before, Prime Minister Paul Martin had met with Toronto's African-Canadian community to discuss solutions and promised a high-level summit for further discussions.
And church minister Al Bowen -- who conducted the funeral service for Amon Beckles -- called on the government to invoke the War Measures Act and send the military to patrol violence-plagued neighbourhoods.
The gun violence issue has also popped up during the federal election. Martin used an appearance in the troubled Jane-Finch neighborhood in northwest Toronto to promise a handgun ban and other measures to fight gun-related crime.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper promises tougher sentencing and some community intervention programs.
NDP Leader Jack Layton has talked about getting tough, but frames the problem mainly as a social issue, saying, "We also need to get tougher -- much tougher -- on poverty, unemployment and social exclusion."
The day after the Yonge Street shootout, a coalition of city youth groups demanded money and co-operation from all levels of government to attack feelings of marginalization and hopelessness among city youth.
The group believes Toronto reached a crisis point in 2005 and are hopeful that an innocent by-stander's death is a turning point towards the co-operation they seek.
However, Toronto police have repeatedly said they have problems getting witnesses to step forward and provide information on those doing the shooting, stymying many homicide investigations.
Statistically still 'Toronto the good'
In 2004, Toronto ranked as one of Canada's safest places to live when compared to other major cities, according to a Statistics Canada report released in July.
The per capita murder rate was 1.8 per 100,000 people. Montreal's per capita rate is 1.7 per 100,000, while the prairie city of Winnipeg comes in at almost five per 100,000.
Nationally, the average is 1.95 per 100,000. Manitoba had the highest provincial rate at 4.3 per 100,000, while Ontario's was 1.51 per 100,000.
And while there are spectacular exceptions, most of the gun-related homicides take place in what have been deemed at-risk neighborhoods, where unemployment is high and social services are in short supply.
Numbers equal real people
However, statistics do not provide comfort to the dozens of families grieving for murdered loved ones. For them, the numbers represent people who are gone forever.
"I raised him for 18 years and some bastard just took him away," Nadia Beckles said shortly after a shooter took her son's life.
Other people fear for their children's safety. Benjamin Osei fled with his family from a violent situation in another country, only to be confronted with what is happening in Toronto. He wanted something better for his daughter.
"We need a better place for her (his daughter) to live and all the children," Osei said during an Oct. 29 rally to end the violence.
Many parents in at-risk neighborhoods are afraid to allow their children to play outside. There have been stories of people killed in their homes by stray bullets.
During that same rally, a boy named Tyreik explained his daily experience in a rap he penned.
"It's hard for you and me living in this society. Late at night or in the middle of the day ... there ain't no place for us kids to stay," rhymed the seven-year-old.