CTV Toronto
Published Monday, Jul. 23, 2012 6:35AM EDT
Last Updated Monday, Jul. 23, 2012 1:41PM EDT
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford will demand at least $5 million from the province when he sits down with provincial leaders and Toronto’s police chief to discuss the city’s gun problem on Monday.
Ford has declared war on street criminals, claiming he will throw anyone convicted of a gun crime out of the city.
On Monday, he told a Toronto radio station he would demand the province provide funding to hire extra police officers.
“I will be asking for a minimum of $5 million, or as much as $10 million, something that is realistic. I can’t go in asking for $20 or $25 (million) because I know they don’t have it,” Ford told AM 640.
“Five million dollars will hire a lot of officers. It would make the city a lot safer and we would get these guns and gangs off our streets.”
With more than 200 shootings in Toronto so far this year, highlighted by a public Scarborough shootout that killed two and injured 23 others, the city’s gun problem has garnered the attention of the provincial and federal governments.
Premier Dalton McGuinty met with Scarborough community leaders last week, but those leaders will not be at Monday’s meeting, when the premier will sit down with Ford and Chief Bill Blair.
Community activist Dwayne Morgan said a lack of representation could leave people in crime-affected neighbourhoods doubting whether a solution will come from the gun summit.
“People in the community are usually very weary of these sorts of things, because they don’t actually believe anything positive is going to come of them,” Morgan told CTV Canada AM on Monday.
“When an election is coming you don’t see the politicians. They don’t go into those neighbourhoods to rally support. They only find out about these communities when something like this happens. The people in these communities don’t feel like they are involved.”
Attorney General John Gerretsen, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Madeleine Meilleur and Minister of Children and Youth Services Dr. Eric Hoskins will join the discussion at Queen’s Park on Monday.
McGuinty has said there are no quick-fixes to Toronto’s gun problem. He agrees that more police resources would help, but added that more and better social programs are needed to steer youth away from gangs.
Ford, meantime, has said he will lobby McGuinty for more funding for police, but has turned his back on what he calls “hug-a-thug” programs.
Ford was the only member of city council to vote against accepting $350,000 in federal funding for a gang intervention program last month.
In recent days, several African-Canadian leaders have called for a long-term strategy to addressing the culture behind youth violence.
Margaret Parsons of the African-Canadian Legal Clinic said the community does not want politicians to offer “stop-gap measures.”
Alvin Curling, a former MPP and house speaker, has also come out claiming recommendations outlined in a report he co-authored for the province in 2008, titled “The Roots of Youth Violence,” had not yet been addressed.
The report recommended that government focus its resources on improving poverty, racism and the lack of jobs and decent housing in Toronto’s most disadvantaged communities.
On AM 640, Ford dismissed the report and said the problem needed less talk and more action.
“Money talks and B.S. walks. I’m not going to listen to some B.S. in some reports and yada yada. I’ve got a busy city to run,” Ford said.
Morgan said long-lasting and permanent investment in high-priority neighbourhoods would change the culture in the area, giving the community something to be proud of.
“It only becomes a community when people are actually invested into where they live. In order for them to be invested, you have to give them something to hold on to,” Morgan said.
“When these people join a gang, it is almost like a family. They are other young people going through the same experiences as them, they have things in common. And while their activities tend to be negative, they are actually seeking out that human connection.”
After last week’s deadly shooting, Ford claimed that he would throw criminals out of the city and promised to speak with Prime Minister Stephen Harper about using “immigration laws” to remove criminals from Toronto.
Ford later tried to clarify the statement, explaining that he did not mean to imply that foreigners were responsible for Toronto’s gun problem.
When asked about Ford’s declaration of war against gun criminals, Morgan said the mayor’s rhetoric had little effect on the local community.
“It sounds good politically, but it means nothing to the people in the community because they understand the reality of the community,” he said.
The premier and other politicians and community leaders have also appealed to the federal government to ban handguns. McGuinty said the ban would send an “appropriate signal” in changing the country’s gun culture.
