There has been a recent spate of stabbings in the city that was once known as "Toronto the Good". It seems as if knives have suddenly replaced guns as the weapon of choice for those that the city mothers like to refer to as "disadvantaged youth". These activities have Citytv pondering whether 2006 will become known as "the Year of the Knife" in much the same way as last year was often called "the Year of the Gun".
Three horrific incidents involving knives have taken place in less than a week that makes a lot of the city's now routine gun crime pale in comparison. On april 21, 17-year-old high school student Danilo Celestino was stabbed to death in a Coffee Time located near his school. although police are denying the rumour that Celestino was killed over a bus ticket there is no doubt that the real motive of the slaying will be something equally trivial. The violent death was captured by a surveillance camera and an 18-year-old man later surrendered to police.
Four days later a 29-year-old single mother of two was stabbed to death in her home. Her 10-year-old son who witnessed the crime received a cut to his thumb when he made a valiant attempt to take the knife away from the older and larger attacker who was killing his mother. a 19-year-old man was arrested sitting in a mall parking lot a short distance from the dead woman's home.
On april 27 a 19-year-old man was found near an Etobicoke High School. He had been stabbed in the back and the head numerous times; one estimate put the number of wounds at 20. He was rushed to hospital in critical condition and amazingly is expected to survive.
around the time that this latest incident occurred, two cases involving high profile stabbing deaths were reaching milestones in local courtrooms. a jury convicted a 17-year-old male in the stabbing death of Tanner Hopkins who was killed in 2004 while attempting to evict party crashers from his parent's property. and another teen was sentenced to 8 years in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter in February for the 2004 stabbing death of Drew Stewart. Stewart was beaten and stabbed after coming to the defense of a young pregnant teen that had been punched in the face by other youths.
It seems as if the police are making some progress in getting guns off the streets of Toronto the dregs of society are turning to knives to inflict serious bodily harm and death on others. The problem of course never was guns; it always was about people and although ranting and raving about guns coming from the United States and about the activities of gun collectors and hobbyists made the left feel good, the real problem has always been about the many young people that are being raised without any or much regard for human life. Mayor David Miller and his like minded councillors will continue to surround themselves with police chiefs and football players and they'll all urge Torontonians to hug some thugs and build more basketball courts but the killings will continue.
Beginning on Monday, Canada Free Press will amend its feature, "Recent Shootings in Mayor David Miller's Toronto" to include violent incidents that are committed by knives. This year is certainly shaping up to be the Year of the Knife.
addendum: as this column is being posted, word is coming in that woman was stabbed to death in front of her 3 children in Toronto's west end near Lakeshore and Kipling. Her 41-year-old husband, has been arrested.
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement