Police Chief Bill Blair reasserted that Toronto was a safe place to live on Tuesday, after several long weekend shootings launched a fresh wave of concern over the city’s perceived gun culture.
The comments come in the wave of shootings over the Canada Day long weekend, including one instance in which a two-year-old girl was hit in the leg by a stray bullet.
The child was sitting inside a car near Keele Street and Sheppard Avenue West when she was struck on Sunday.
In another case, a man was injured after he was shot a short distance from the Canada Day fireworks display at Woodbine Beach.
The busy weekend came following two very public fatal attacks: a shooting in the Eaton Centre cafeteria and in Little Italy amid a hectic Euro Cup celebration.
Blair rejected claims that Toronto had turned into a war zone, asserting that Canada’s largest city remains one of the safest in North America.
“We have seen a slight increase in the number of shooting occurrences – not an increase in the number of people who have been injured in gunfire. In fact, there are fewer murders this year than last,” Blair said on Tuesday.
“We have seen an increase in shooting occurrences where firearms have been discharged and no one has been injured. It is a concern to us.”
Blair said that while the city does not have “no crime,” it does have “low crime.”
According to Toronto police statistics, there have been more victims of gunfire so far this year than over the course of the same period in 2011.
There have been 25 murders – 15 of them shooting homicides – in the city so far this year. There have also been a total of 131 shooting occurrences and a total of 163 victims of gunfire.
Over the same time frame last year, Toronto saw 101 shootings and 119 victims, according to police statistics.
There were 26 homicides in Toronto during the same time period in 2011 and a total of 50 over the course of the year – the lowest homicide rate in nearly three decades.
With files from CTV Toronto’s John Musselman
