Toronto- The BullShxt Summit-AKA The Gun Summit - National Post
Toronto's 'gun summit' will go nowhere | Full Comment | National Post
The premier of Ontario, the mayor of Toronto and the city’s police chief are to meet on Monday to address issues raised by last week’s gun fight at a community barbecue, which left two dead and 23 wounded. Since then there have been additional shootings: four victims in three incidents on Friday and Saturday alone. Seven months into the year, there have already been more than 200 shooting incidents in the city.
I’m betting that absolutely nothing comes of the summit. Here’s why:
1. The mayor isn’t equipped for it. When it comes to anything other than the need to cut spending, Mayor Rob Ford is … let’s face it … clueless. His response to the gun fight last week has been typical: an explosion of incoherent rage accompanied by an outpouring of redneck proposals that are neither intelligent nor helpful. He appeared to suggest everyone involved should be deported, based on some weird assumption that the culprits must be immigrants. He’s fed up with “hug-a-thug” programs (which seems to mean anything but more cops and increased jail time), and wants to make the city off limits to anyone with a criminal record involving a gun. As he put it: “I’m going to find out if there’s some way that if anyone is caught with a gun and they come out of jail, they’re not allowed to live in the city.” (It’s particularly odd that Mr. Ford’s favourite pastime outside of politics is running a high school football program aimed at keeping kids out of trouble. Yet he professes to see no point in similar programs on a broader scale).
2. Premier Dalton McGuinty comes across as less cartoonish but is, if anything, less likely to adopt any kind of sensible program. To date, the signature policing action of his eight years in office is the tragic mishandling of the native blockade at Caledonia, in which the province eventually bought off the Indians after abandoning local residents to years of thuggery while police were to forced to stand by and watch. Four years ago, after a similar outburst of Toronto gun violence, a big report was ordered up from former Ontario chief justice Roy McMurtry and former Ontario Speaker Alvin Curling. Dozens of recommendations were made, few of which were adopted. The report opened with these words:
“Ontario is at a crossroads. While it is a safe place for most, our review identified deeply troubling trends in the nature of serious violent crime involving youth in Ontario and the impacts it is having on many communities. Those trends suggest that, unless the roots of this violence are identified and addressed in a co-ordinated, collaborative and sustained way, violence will get worse. More people will be killed, communities will become increasingly isolated and disadvantaged, an ever-accelerating downward cycle will ensue for far too many, and our social fabric as a province could be seriously damaged.”
Which seems to be exactly what’s happening.
3. The meeting is being called a “gun summit” and the issue is being called Toronto’s “gun problem.” Mr. McGuinty is demanding Ottawa ban handguns, a sure sign that he has nothing new or practical to offer. It would be great if there were no guns in Toronto’s streets, but the issue isn’t the choice of weaponry. It’s the aimless, useless, unpromising life the young men of Toronto’s most troubled neighbourhoods see stretching before them. Nutbars excluded, you don’t get an illegal gun and shoot up block parties if you have something valuable to lose, like a decent job and a promising life. Mssrs Curling and McMurtry clearly identified the fundamental problems: concentrations of families with too much poverty, too little hope and too little help in communities that might as well be walled off from the rest of th country.
Toronto's 'gun summit' will go nowhere | Full Comment | National Post
The premier of Ontario, the mayor of Toronto and the city’s police chief are to meet on Monday to address issues raised by last week’s gun fight at a community barbecue, which left two dead and 23 wounded. Since then there have been additional shootings: four victims in three incidents on Friday and Saturday alone. Seven months into the year, there have already been more than 200 shooting incidents in the city.
I’m betting that absolutely nothing comes of the summit. Here’s why:
1. The mayor isn’t equipped for it. When it comes to anything other than the need to cut spending, Mayor Rob Ford is … let’s face it … clueless. His response to the gun fight last week has been typical: an explosion of incoherent rage accompanied by an outpouring of redneck proposals that are neither intelligent nor helpful. He appeared to suggest everyone involved should be deported, based on some weird assumption that the culprits must be immigrants. He’s fed up with “hug-a-thug” programs (which seems to mean anything but more cops and increased jail time), and wants to make the city off limits to anyone with a criminal record involving a gun. As he put it: “I’m going to find out if there’s some way that if anyone is caught with a gun and they come out of jail, they’re not allowed to live in the city.” (It’s particularly odd that Mr. Ford’s favourite pastime outside of politics is running a high school football program aimed at keeping kids out of trouble. Yet he professes to see no point in similar programs on a broader scale).
2. Premier Dalton McGuinty comes across as less cartoonish but is, if anything, less likely to adopt any kind of sensible program. To date, the signature policing action of his eight years in office is the tragic mishandling of the native blockade at Caledonia, in which the province eventually bought off the Indians after abandoning local residents to years of thuggery while police were to forced to stand by and watch. Four years ago, after a similar outburst of Toronto gun violence, a big report was ordered up from former Ontario chief justice Roy McMurtry and former Ontario Speaker Alvin Curling. Dozens of recommendations were made, few of which were adopted. The report opened with these words:
“Ontario is at a crossroads. While it is a safe place for most, our review identified deeply troubling trends in the nature of serious violent crime involving youth in Ontario and the impacts it is having on many communities. Those trends suggest that, unless the roots of this violence are identified and addressed in a co-ordinated, collaborative and sustained way, violence will get worse. More people will be killed, communities will become increasingly isolated and disadvantaged, an ever-accelerating downward cycle will ensue for far too many, and our social fabric as a province could be seriously damaged.”
Which seems to be exactly what’s happening.
3. The meeting is being called a “gun summit” and the issue is being called Toronto’s “gun problem.” Mr. McGuinty is demanding Ottawa ban handguns, a sure sign that he has nothing new or practical to offer. It would be great if there were no guns in Toronto’s streets, but the issue isn’t the choice of weaponry. It’s the aimless, useless, unpromising life the young men of Toronto’s most troubled neighbourhoods see stretching before them. Nutbars excluded, you don’t get an illegal gun and shoot up block parties if you have something valuable to lose, like a decent job and a promising life. Mssrs Curling and McMurtry clearly identified the fundamental problems: concentrations of families with too much poverty, too little hope and too little help in communities that might as well be walled off from the rest of th country.
