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51 Division Community / Police Liaison Committee |
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Don't
rush emergency upgrades, minister says
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Toronto should hold off asking the provincial government for money to upgrade the city's capacity to respond to emergencies, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says. Instead, Toronto and other municipalities should work with the provincial and federal governments to establish overall plans to deal with security concerns that have emerged since the Sept. 11 terrorism, Mr. Flaherty told reporters at Queen's Park. "What we need to do is intelligently assess what the security requirements are. . . . It involves all levels of government. It involves multiple police services. "Once we can assess those specific needs, they can be costed and discussions can take place about who bears the cost of what types of issues. That involves the federal government as well, of course." The Finance Minister was responding to a request from Mayor Mel Lastman on Thursday that the provincial and federal governments pay the estimated $60-million cost of building up the city's emergency-response systems. Mr. Lastman presented a plan that recommends the city hire an additional 55 firefighters, rent an emergency-services helicopter and enhance the police department's intelligence-gathering capability. |
STAFF REPORTER (Toronto Star) |
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Fifteen-year old Daniel George turned in his gun yesterday. Heaving a
wistful sigh, he stood under the watchful eye of police officers and
carefully placed his piece on a cluttered table.
It wasn't just any gun, but a water cannon, complete with an oversized barrel and a high-capacity water tank. Daniel was putting the days of drenching friends and family behind him. ``I have no use for it,'' he declared before trading up to a baseball set. Water cannons, cap guns and replicas were targeted by community groups that organized a toy gun exchange yesterday. The Kids Need Toys, Not Guns program lured about 600 children to All Saints Square in Regent Park with puzzles, books and non-violent toys in exchange for their guns. ``We don't have the power to take away the real guns, so we thought we'd start small,'' said organizer Diane McLean. So far this year, there have been six gun-related deaths in Regent Park - twice as many as there were all of last year. ``We went to so many funerals in the last while. It's just been a hellish time for Regent Park,'' McLean said. ``Every night you hear gunshots in this neighbourhood,'' added Chris Martin, 17. Concerned residents formed Parents For Better Beginnings to organize Regent Park's first-ever toy gun exchange. Among about 400 guns collected, officers bagged a few weapons that looked chillingly real. ``Some of these guns look so good it's unbelievable.'' said Superintendent Ron Taverner of 51 Division, which polices the area. But the only thing 7-year-old Tyrone Lancaster held up with his three guns was the line, as he scanned the toy selection. Tyrone's grandmother, Linda Lancaster, said she was relieved to see him giving up his weapons. ``He thinks he's almighty with his gun. I don't want my grandson growing up to be a gangster.'' |
DEMOGRAPHICS REPORTER (Toronto Star) |
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``It seems to me inevitable that we would have an increase in violence because it seems we have policies designed that way,'' said Anthony Doob, a criminology professor at the University of Toronto. Violent crime in Toronto rose by 7.5 per cent last year to a rate of 868 incidents per 100,000 population, Statistics Canada said in its annual report on crime yesterday. But property crimes, including theft, break and enter and fraud, fell by 6.8 per cent. This lead to a 2.1 per cent decline in the over-all crime rate, leaving Toronto with the fourth lowest rate of all metropolitan areas, after Chicoutimi-Jonquière, Quebec city and Trois-Rivières. Regina had the highest rate, followed by Saskatoon. Young people aged 15 to 24 have the highest crime rate of any age group. Across Canada, violent youth offences rose by 7 per cent after falling for eight years. They included an 18 per cent rise in sexual assaults, a 7 per cent increase in assaults and a 2 per cent rise in robberies. Doob said cuts to welfare and other social programs means problem kids get less help, which has an affect on violent crime. ``What we know about crime is that all these things, particularly for kids who are at risk, are things which in the past have helped reduce crime and now they're no longer there,'' he said. ``Why should we be surprised?'' The increases are consistent with numbers gathered by Toronto police. ``Over-all crime took a little bit of a dive, but the concern for us, obviously, is that violent crime is up,'' Staff Inspector Bruce Smollet said yesterday. ``Especially in an area . . . like youth crime. It's a very big concern. Obviously, we're very glad that crime over-all is down slightly, but most policemen are going to tell you that any crime is too many,'' he said. Doob said Ontario's response to kids who get in trouble at schools is all wrong. ``You kick them out, you punish them, rather than trying to make the kids' experience in school more positive so they don't act out,'' he said. ``Schools are being told `get rid of the kid, make that kid somebody else's problem, have the kid charged,' '' he said. ``The question is do you try to keep them in the one institution where you have an opportunity to do something positive or do you say `get out of here.' Well, we have a tendency now to say `get out of here.' '' Teachers have less time to work with individual students who are beginning to have problems or to spend on things like extracurricular activities that kids enjoy, he said. ``All of these things make school a less positive experience for kids and we know that's going to relate to the amount of crime the kids who are at risk are doing,'' he said. ``It's not mysterious.''
With files from Jennifer Quinn |
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How would you like to live on a Toronto street where "on a daily basis I
have to deal with hookers, pimps, drug addicts, drunks and other criminal
types?"
And, in the mornings, find "used needles, used condoms, bent pop cans used
to smoke drugs, crack pipes, soiled clothing, including underwear, and refuse
outside my front door?"
Well, a single law clerk who moved into an attractive condo three winters ago in
the Dundas-Sherbourne Sts. area says that's what she and her neighbours
increasingly face.
She says the situation could be vastly improved if there was a far stronger and
visible police presence on the streets.
"It was only once spring arrived in 1998 that I discovered what an
unsavoury neighbourhood I had purchased in -- I was horrified to find goings-on
that were beyond belief and very little police presence," she stated
recently. She asked for anonymity due to fear of retaliation from
"unsavoury" people in the neighbourhood.
She contacted me because of a column I wrote a week ago about the increase of
violent crime in Toronto. In it, I mentioned three murders that took place the
previous weekend and the fact no suspects had been apprehended or even
identified. In the case of one of those murders, more than 50 people were
present at the scene -- a birthday party -- but it seemed "nobody saw
anything."
One of the murders was that of Benny Kenneth Cloutier, 23, shot to death at the
corner of River and Oak Sts., just blocks east of the Dundas-Sherbourne area.
I had mentioned about driving north on Sherbourne St. a few days earlier in
mid-evening and watching drug deals taking place openly at the Queen St.
intersection, plus drug dealers and prostitutes operating openly at Dundas St.
-- with none seemingly concerned about being apprehended by police.
A private security company officer who keeps such types out of a nearby coffee
shop told me: "The cops don't hassle them because they think they're
confining them to that area."
Well, if that's the strategy, it stinks. As I wrote, it means some
neighbourhoods are being sacrificed to keep others safe.
The law clerk said she had lived in the downtown area previously and was
familiar with such living. But when she purchased in the Dundas-Sherbourne
neighbourhood, she wasn't prepared for "the severity of the crimes in that
area."
She said she joined with other residents in attending a meeting at City Hall
last year where the best advice she could get was to move out of the area or
"learn the buzzwords so the police will come" when she phoned 911 for
help.
"I was extremely offended by this response from the police members at the
meeting and asked them if this program is offered in Rosedale or Forest
Hill," she said.
Earlier this year, she successfully appealed her tax rate on the basis of the
crime situation, nearby public housing and a home for paranoid schizophrenics
that help lower property values.
At the time, she submitted: "It is not a pleasant stroll up my street to go
to the store. At the corner of my street, drug dealers openly sell and use their
wares without any police interference. Pimps openly assault their women, one
recently using a hockey stick to force her to walk up our street one sunny
Sunday afternoon."
Claiming she would rather improve the situation than move, she suggested the
police carry out the same extra patrols and presence they launched in Parkdale a
few years ago.
"I have a friend who lives in Parkdale and she beams as she tells me how
much her street and neighbourhood have cleaned up in the past few years,"
she said.
Well, it would be nice if the same extra police presence would be imposed in
that Dundas-Sherbourne area -- and that especially includes the residential side
streets.
No, it isn't Rosedale or Forest Hill, but the majority of these residents are
peaceful citizens who also pay taxes. They deserve better. Much better.
STAFF REPORTER |
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The assaults have occurred in public areas of apartment buildings, in the area north of Kipling Ave. between Finch Ave. and Steeles Ave. W. The three most recent attacks happened in the last two days. There have been five to six attacks in the past six months, most of them in one building. According to the investigating officer, Detective Domenic Sinopoli, all of the attacks have been of a similar nature. The women are approached unexpectedly and grabbed and fondled in a sexual manner. The assaults usually occur during the day or early evening. ``We are asking women to pay particular attention to underground parking lots, empty corridors and laundry rooms,'' Sinopoli said. ``The women are usually surprised while walking through a corridor or in the laundry room,'' he said. The attacks have not been brutal, Sinopoli said. None of the women have needed medical attention due to injuries. Police have a vague description of a suspect but are not releasing it until they receive further information. They believe the same man is responsible for the attacks and lives in the area where they occurred. Police don't have any leads on the assailant. ``We believe there may have been other attacks'' of women that have not been reported, Sinopoli said. They are appealing to victims to report any incidents, however small, to 23 division on Kipling Ave. at 416-808-2304. |
MISSISSAUGA -- Ontario Solicitor-General David Turnbull has urged the province's police chiefs to support his government's novel effort to introduce provincial amendments to federal legislation on young criminals.
Ottawa "still fails to take youth crime seriously," he told the annual convention of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, which began yesterday in Mississauga.
He said the proposed Youth Criminal Justice Act should be toughened to threaten more junior lawbreakers with adult-style sentences, mandatory jail time and publication of their names.
Last week, his government announced it has drafted what it calls the No More Free Ride for Young Offenders Act, a document proposing more than 100 changes to the YCJA, although a province cannot introduce a bill in Parliament.
The YCJA, written to replace the Young Offenders Act, has been passed by the House of Commons and is now before the Senate.
Ontario's proposals were sent to the Senate legal affairs committee, which could choose to consider them along with suggestions from other outside groups. Quebec politicians have argued that the legislation is already too tough and would impede rehabilitation.
Under Premier Mike Harris, demands for a hard line on young criminals have often enabled Ontario's Progressive Conservatives to score political points at the expense of the federal Liberals.
After his speech to the chiefs, Mr. Turnbull cheerfully acknowledged that criminal law is outside provincial jurisdiction. "Absolutely, yes." he said. "All we can do is continue to try to put pressure on the federal government."
Four months into the job as minister in charge of policing, he finds police "very frustrated" at seeing youngsters they have arrested "out on the street in no time," he said.
Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino said after the meeting that he generally supports the Tory proposals, especially those involving stiffer sentences. "We've got a revolving door now," he said.
He said many youngsters believe the law can't touch them and are recruited by adults for that reason.
Mr. Turnbull said the province's Crime Control Commission, which consists of three Tory MPPs, will take the dispute with Ottawa on the road this summer in a series of community forums.
Ontario announces Crime victim agency
CANADA'S FIRST agency for crime victims will become a permanent part of Ontario's justice system today. Attorney General David Young made the announcement yesterday as part of services to victims of crime. "This announcement marks a turning point in this province," Young said. "It confirms without a doubt that victims will not be an afterthought." The Office for Victims of Crime will be officially become a permanent advisory agency today the Annual Day of Commemoration for Victims of Crime.
Working with the Ontario Tourism Education Corporation (OTEC), the Centre has an agreement to deliver our Safer Bars training program to bar owners, managers and staff across Canada. OTEC is a provincial non-profit organisation that specialises in customer service training, which fits well with our Safer Bars project that trains staff to deescalate situations to reduce the prevalence of violence in bars. This partnership allows the Centre to expand the reach of the program across Ontario, and eventually across Canada.
