As a year of record gun violence winded down in Toronto, the 52nd gun fatality of the year was the straw that broke the camel's back. The Boxing Day shooting death of Jane Creba—a 15-year-old girl who had been shopping with family on Yonge Street when she got caught in the crossfire—rocked the city to its core.
While the city was still mourning the young girl, Toronto saw its first gun fatality of 2006, just hours after New Years.
Creba's death—no doubt among the most high-profile of 2005—has left Torontonians (and indeed, all Canadians) desperate for solutions.
As the second half of the election campaign heats up, it appears that federal politicians are stepping up to meet the public's calls for action in the areas of law enforcement and judicial reform. But, reflecting public opinion, which sees drugs and gang activity as more direct causes of gun violence than social factors, promises to improve funding for social programs are conspicuously absent.
In the first half of the election campaign, Liberal Leader Paul Martin promised an all-out ban on handguns if re-elected. Stephen Harper's Conservatives rejected the Liberal proposal, instead suggesting that tougher law enforcement is needed. Martin has also proposed increasing minimum sentences for individuals charged on gun-related crimes, while Harper has suggested stricter border security and automatic jail time for individuals convicted of weapons offences.
Following the shootings, a series of phone calls between Toronto Mayor David Miller, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, and Prime Minister Martin led to the establishment of a "working group" composed of senior bureaucrats, city police, and RCMP representatives to address the issue of gun violence. The group held its first meeting on Wednesday.
The working group is expected to discuss many measures proposed recently to tackle gun violence, including the idea of "reverse onus," where the onus would fall on those charged with weapons offences to prove that they deserve bail.
Other options the group is likely to discuss are Martin's proposal for a total ban on handguns, tougher law enforcement, tighter border security and increased minimum sentences for those charged with smuggling or possession of illegal weapons.
The group is also expected to discuss measures to speed the distribution of federal funds promised last year for youth programs in Toronto's troubled neighbourhoods. In November, the Liberal government promised a $50 million "Gun Violence and Gang Prevention Fund" that would, over a five year period, work to prevent youths from entering gangs through community-based prevention projects. Some black groups have criticized Toronto's newly-formed working group, however, for its failure to incorporate representatives of the black community in the talks. The majority of gun violence victims in 2005 were black youth, and many victims and their killers hailed from impoverished and largely black neighbourhoods.
A recent poll by Ipsos-Reid for Canwest Global news service showed that 88 percent of Canadians believe gangs are a major factor contributing to the gun violence problem. In the poll, conducted between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2,, drugs and drug trafficking was cited by 84 percent as a major factor, while inadequate handgun laws and border security were perceived as major factors by 49 percent and 54 percent, respectively.
Lenient judges were also blamed by 78 percent of Canadians as contributing to the problem. One of the suspects charged in Creba's case was out on parole at the time of the shooting.
The poll also revealed that few Canadians see social problems as major factors contributing to violence. Only 26 percent of Canadians pointed to a lack of affordable housing as a major factor in violence, while 42 percent and 37 percent identified a lack of employment opportunities and training programs and a lack of funding for recreational and youth programs as major contributors to gun crime. The poll is considered accurate within 1.1 percent, 19 times out of 20.
Looking South
While ideas continue swirling at home, legislators and police may also have something to gain in looking to our neighbours to the south. Endemic gun violence is nothing new in many major American cities, and in attempting to combat the problem, some cities have had a degree of success.
In the mid-90s, for example, Chicago experimented with the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention. The project was spearheaded by Dr. Gary Slutkin, the former chief of the Intervention Development Office at the World Health Organization (WHO), who used what he learned working in the developing world to prevent violence in Chicago.
The project involved an "8-point plan" designed to cut in half the homicide rate in Chicago between 1999 and 2004. It was implemented through cooperation from community residents, law enforcement, community-based organizations, clergy, and private industry, and called for the creation of community coalitions, public education campaigns, and stopping the surge of illegal firearms, among other things. Shootings have declined by as much as 45 percent in the neighbourhoods where the Chicago projects have been active.
The City of Boston was also able to effectively cut down on violence through a coalition between different government and community organizations such as the Boston Police Department and the Coalition of Activist Black Clergy. The strategy involved, among other things, key law enforcement programs such as the 'Operation Cease Fire' which focused target interventions on people most likely to become offenders or victims in gun violence.
"At a political level, the success was partnership between a group of black ministers and Boston police department that were able to agree on ... what kinds of policies were going to be pursued," says Dr. Christopher Winship, a professor of sociology at Harvard University in Boston.
Although the Boston strategy was making strides, it didn't take too long before the number of gun incidents started rising again. Dr. Winship says the reason is not that the Boston strategy was not effective, but that the strategy has not been continued.
"I think the right way to think about it is the policies and programs that were pursued in '90s were stopped, and so it's not that the solutions that worked in the '90s are not working now, those solutions are not being used now, " says Winship.
In some respects Canada appears to be one step ahead of the U.S. already. According to Zach Ragbourn, spokesperson for the U.S.-based Brady Campaign to prevent gun violence, one of the most successful campaigns in the U.S. to reduce gun violence has been the introduction of background checks that licensed gun dealers are required to conduct before they can sell a gun. In Canada, this type of program has been in operation under the Firearms Act since 1995.
Through stricter law enforcement and implementing different social programs, New York City's crime rate dropped substantially in the '90s. Jackie Kuhls, the executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, an advocacy group to prevent gun violence in New York, says the strong gun laws implemented in New York is contributing to the declining crime rate.
New York has one of the strictest gun laws in the United States and requires all handguns to be registered and licensed. However, New York has a similar problem to Toronto: 90 percent of the guns used in crimes come from other states, according to Kuhls.
In Toronto, gun-related crimes are carried out with guns originating from two main sources: those stolen from private collections, and those smuggled from the US. Although a proposal like Martin's to completely ban handguns would cut down on the number of stolen guns that make their way onto the streets, border security would also need to be stepped up drastically lest weapons smuggling becomes an even more lucrative business.
Although Toronto's high-level meetings to discuss gun violence are not expected to produce any immediate results, judging from the uproar of public condemnation and determined political action, it seems the city is doing something right.
"In Canada when gun violence is approached as an issue, there is much more willingness, it seems, to really talk about what can be done about the issue," says Ragbourn. "And that's the kind of open-minded approach that really helps people get to the bottom of an issue."
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