Toronto getting $12.3 million from Ottawa to combat roots of gun violence
Toronto will be getting a $12 million boost to help community groups on the ground tackle the root causes of gun violence in the city.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino made the announcement at Malvern Community Centre alongside Toronto Mayor John Tory Wednesday morning.
“This funding will support community-led projects to combat gang violence and activities among at-risk children, young people and young adults in Toronto and it will help address knowledge gaps around the impacts of interventions in gang violence,” Mendicino said. “It will also help to provide strategies that will off-ramp so that young people who are at risk make good choices, rather than some of the choices that can lead them down the wrong path.”
- Download our app to get local alerts to your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
Toronto will be receiving up to $12.3 million from the federal government’s $250 million Building Safer Communities Fund. The fund provides municipalities with money which they are then able to distribute to local organizations that focus on children, youth and young adults who are involved in or at risk of joining gangs.
Mendicino said the fund uses data and evidence, including population and crime statistics, to determine where investments should be allocated.
“It's a very smart and targeted approach that will ensure that communities who are most at risk will receive the support in a timely manner to invest in the safety of their residents,” he said.
Police display guns seized during a series of raids at a press conference in Toronto on Friday, June 14, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
The federal government previously announced in March that $7.3 million from the fund would be given to York Region for the same purpose and announcements are expected in other municipalities as well.
Mendicino said the government is also working to raise maximum sentences for gun trafficking, providing additional crime prevention powers for police, and working to implement a mandatory buy-back program for assault rifles.
He acknowledged that there is “no one size fits all solution to gun crime and gang violence” and said cooperation with communities is key.
“That's why at the very heart of this announcement for $12.3 million has to be cooperation, has to be communication, has to be collaboration,” he said, standing alongside a number of organizations and individuals involved in helping youth avoid gangs.
Tory echoed that sentiment and said groups working with youth on the ground are key.
“When we combine our efforts together and put this new money to work and collaborate the way we have on housing, the way we continue to on housing the way we did in the pandemic, there's every reason to believe that it's going to make a material difference as long as we make sure that at the same time as we collaborate together, that that collaboration includes every minute of every day, the community leaders represented by those behind us today because they are people who know best,” Tory said.
He said gun violence not only hurts the immediate victims, but families and communities who remain traumatized by it.
The increasing prevalence of gun violence has been a growing concern in Toronto for the past number of years.
More recently the issue of guns has been in the minds of Canadians following a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on May 24 which left 19 children dead along with two teachers.
In the wake of the tragedy in the U.S., Ottawa announced Bill C21 on May 30. The bill would further restrict access to handguns across the countrya, implementing a freeze on the sale, transfer or purchase of handguns in Canada.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
What happens after we die? Most Canadians say an afterlife does exist, survey shows
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.