Toronto Star article paints a frightening picture of gang life in this city

I have mixed feelings about the Toronto Star. The paper is strongly biased in favour of mass immigration and multiculturalism. A lot of its reporting on these subjects is little more than propaganda. At the moment it's on a mission to promote amnesty for illegal immigrants all the while ignoring the impact illegals have on Canadian wages. The same paper that frets over Canada's working poor supports the high levels of immigration that are driving down their wages. The Star doesn't seem to see the connection between immigration and the low wages that keep many workers in poverty.

That said, I've been reading the Star since I was a child and feel a sentimental attachment towards it. The paper does, to its credit, have some good reporting on life in Toronto. Even on immigration, it occasionally prints good articles. Last year, for example, the Star published two important columns by James Travers. He showed that according to the government's own research recent immigrants have been doing poorly. This contradicted assertions by then immigration minister Joe Volpe who was arguing that immigrants were doing so well Canada should raise immigration levels from the current 200-250,000 a year to a whopping 320,000 a year or one percent of the population.

Today's edition has a feature article on Toronto's gang culture that shows the Star at its best. I think everyone worried about the growing gun violence in this formerly peaceful city should read today's story (A look inside 'The Game', by Moira Walsh, April 29, 2006). Here are some excerpts:

As the city braces for another summer of shootings, the Toronto Star interviewed young men who are in various stages of gang membership -

[. . .]

The world they reveal is harsh, leaving a wake of fatal shootings and thousands of beatings, thefts and robberies.

"The Game," as they call it, is their life: selling drugs, making money, looking good, staying alive.

[. . .]

The neighbourhoods they come from are populated by blacks and other minorities, as are the schools, in pockets of inner city St. Jamestown, Rexdale, North York and Scarborough, where Steven lives. Most neighbourhood kids will graduate from high school, get jobs or continue their education. But a smaller percentage — a handful — will join gangs and become hard-core criminals, despite often-heroic efforts to keep them out of The Game. Children here grow up immersed in the gang culture, where guns and intimidation and casual violence are normal, absorbed in many ways. In Rexdale last summer, a man was shot to death near a church picnic and kids trailing balloons had to be escorted under the yellow police tape that blocked their way home. Sometimes it is more mundane. A boy in a west-end highrise has to stare at the elevator floor when he rides with gangsters. Looking them in the eye is a sign of disrespect for which he will get a beating.

One youth worker said: "You don't ask these kids if they've ever seen a gun, but you might ask if they've ever seen a gun fired."

[. . .]

"Here" is Crips territory, where the gang has cornered the market on drug sales all along Devon's block. The Crips make the most money, which gives them the power to enforce a dress code. Crips wear blue bandanas to symbolize their loyalty. Their enemies, the Bloods, wear red.

When Jane moved into the building, they started smart-talking her, telling her how to dress her son so not to offend them. She is contemptuous of these teenage hoods, but silently so. "I have seen them walk up to old men and say, "Grandfather, don't you know you cannot wear red? Don't let us see you wearing it again."

Last summer, Devon was beaten after the Crips noticed a small patch of red on his hoodie jacket. They told him to never wear red again and warned that if he complained to police, he would be killed. But Jane talked to officers and charges were laid. Guys started coming to his school, trying to get him out of class, so they could make good on their death threat.

Read the rest of Moira Walsh's article here