Violent Crime in Toronto
Dear Editor:
“There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” (Mark Twain)
As regards violent crime in Toronto, what is missing in your violent crime listing is the long trend analysis. That analysis is the overall picture and puts individual acts into proper perspective, stripped of emotion and demagoguery.
For instance, considering the period 1990 to 2004, Canada had a HIGHER Homicide Rate than the U.S. with the exception of 1993 & 1994. (Statistics Canada & FBI) Yet most politicians and their supporting media, outside of the Conservative Party of Canada, paint the opposite picture.
They decry the ‘American gun culture’ and mislead Canadians by claiming that we have NO historic firearms culture even though that culture dates back to the first settlement and old mother England. They have constitutional guarantees. We have an anti-firearms lobby that denies our history and culture.
What is wrong with this picture? We have the gun bans. We have a Rolls Royce firearms registration. We have the draconian Firearms Act. They have the Second Amendment to their Constitution. They have many times the number of firearms compared to Canadians. They have the lower homicide rate!
Conclusion. Our politicians, with the one exception aforementioned, have misled us. They offered dreams instead of reality. They continue to offer more of the same old failed programmes. The reality is our firearms registration is an expensive boondoggle that has failed to result in a safer society. Gun bans are pie in the sky with a proven history of failure everywhere in the world. Violent crime is on the increase in those countries with gun bans. To wit, the British Home Office was caught lying last year when they said violent crime was down when their own internal documents said the opposite and all that after a ten year gun ban!
We should be holding our politician’s feet to the fire by demanding answers to the problems of urban gangs and the economic and cultural basis’ for their being. If these politicians don’t have the grit and integrity to do the job then perhaps they should step aside for those that can offer practical solutions to the problems of gang crime, smuggling and drugs. After all, you don’t blame the car when a drunk kills someone while driving. Such is also the situation with guns and criminals.
Ronald M. Wilson
Westmeath ON
