The headline of the December 27th edition of the Toronto Sun screamed "Bloodbath". anyone who casually glanced at a Toronto Sun newspaper box while on their way to work or to Boxing Day sales couldn’t help but see it. For those who saw the headline but were not aware of the events of the previous day would have naturally assumed that a violent event had taken place in Fallujah or Khandahar or perhaps Chicago. But the bloodbath that occurred happened on the streets of a city that was once referred to as "Toronto the Good". Late on the afternoon of the 26th, two rival gangs had a shootout on Yonge Street just north of the Eaton Centre where the streets were filled with Boxing Day shoppers. When the shooting ended, a 15-year-girl lay dead and 6 others were wounded; one of them critically.
In the wake of the bombings on the London transit system last July, Councillor Howard Moscoe said that our transit system would never be subject to a terrorist attack because terrorists would never be able to find Toronto. Well the news of the gun battle and the death of top high school student and star athlete Jane Creba made headlines around the world and put Toronto on the map for anyone who might have previously missed it.
I am stunned…
Toronto Mayor David Miller
I’m not surprised…
Former Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino
If immediate reactions by the our political leaders is any indication of what will happen in the future, Toronto as we used to know it, is doomed.
We happen to be blessed with a mayor who takes no responsibility for anything negative that happens in the city. If there is a problem, it is the fault of the provincial government or the fault of the federal government; nothing bad ever happens as a consequence of what his administration does. Hours after the carnage had ended, Miller kept the incident prominent in the american media by once again blaming the United States "gun culture" for causing the mayhem. If american tourists are not afraid to come to Toronto, they will be too angry to want to venture to a foreign city that blames them for their ills.
Miller not only has no solution for dealing with the violence that has seen 52 people die at the hand of guns this year; he has no clue as to what the actual problem is. Only former police chief Julian Fantino seems to understand what is going on in the city. Fantino told CTV that the shootings are caused by a small group of young people who have absolutely no fear of consequences including the possibility that they themselves will be shot to death. Fantino was dumped by the Miller-friendly left wing Toronto Police Services Board and replaced by fellow traveller Chief Bill Blair who, like the mayor, thinks it’s more important to express his feelings and give group hugs to the brazen shooters. Okay so Blair said he was going to redeploy officers to other areas in light of the Boxing Day shootings. But where are they going to be redeployed to--Foot Locker stores?
Toronto might even be salvageable if gun violence was the only major problem that the city faced; but it isn’t. Business taxes are way too high in comparison to the surrounding 905 area and we can expect to see more businesses move to the suburbs. Miller’s council can’t stop spending and property taxes and water rates are soaring. Homeowners are going to be hit with increased hydro and heating costs this year and while that can not be blamed on the city mothers, the increase combined with those directly imposed by the tax and spend council will result in many people simply being unable to continue to live in Toronto.
The city’s idea of dealing with roads is to add more and more bicycle lanes is leading to an ever increasing amount of congestion. This makes Toronto a less desirable city not only to live in but in which to conduct business. Those who with an air of superiority smugly chuckled as american cities such as Detroit went into decline are about to see the same thing happen here.
The situation is not irreversible; however there is simply a lack of political will to even attempt to solve the problem. Blaming the United States, other levels of government and expressing emotions such as "stunned" is not a solution.
Mel Lastman has been gone from the mayor’s chair for over 2 years; and so has his vision of Toronto as a world class city.
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