Regent Park residents 'rattled' by shootings

From the Toronto Sun (Regent Park rattled by Cris Doucette, June 13, 2008):

Regent Park residents are feeling more than a little uneasy after a brazen afternoon shooting that left an 18-year-old youth critically injured and a 15-year-old boy wounded.

Watching his two little girls play on a slide just steps from what was a bloody scene a day earlier, Iamtiaz Mohammad couldn't help but feel relieved yesterday that his children were not in the park when the gunfire erupted Wednesday.

[. . .]

Toronto Police say a group of youths were gathered behind the lowrise building on the southwest corner of Gerrard and River Sts. and there was some sort of altercation just before the bullets started flying around 4:15 p.m.


Two teenagers arrived at St. Mike's hospital minutes later in a private vehicle, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. The older youth was hit in his chest and the younger boy in the legs.

[. . .]

Read all of Chris Doucette's article.

There is a lot of discussion about whether or not crime in Toronto is getting worse. Some people point to statistics that show crime is not in fact increasing. I would agree that overall Toronto remains a safe city. However, the problem of guns and gangs is new. This is not something that existed twenty-thirty years ago. It is a new phenomenon and it is related to immigration policies that have brought in people from countries like Jamaica and Somalia where there are serious social problems. I'm not saying all immigrants from these countries are bad. Of course not. However, it stands to reason that if countries are dysfunctional large-scale immigration from those places will bring those dysfunctions here. I should also point out that I know full well that most of these gang members were born in Canada. They may have been born here but they are growing up in social environments that have been transplanted from other countries. You can't blame white racism for the fact that so many black children are being raised by single mothers. White Canadians don't force black men to father children with multiple women. (Though knowing Stephen Harper, I expect him to issue an apology shortly. After all, it's the only thing he's good at.) Toronto never was and never will be crime-free, but it would be a safer city if we had better immigration policies. Just to be clear, better immigration means less immigration. Much less immigration.