As gun and gang violence increases in Canada’s biggest and most important city, governments continue to up the financial ante to try to get a grip on the problems.
Last Friday, the province of Ontario announced it was committing $3 million to help Toronto police more than double the number of closed-circuit television cameras in the city.
In mid-August, the federal, provincial and municipal governments announced they they were pooling $4.5 million to provide more funding funding for Toronto police.
That announcement came after seventeen persons were shot in 14 incidents over Canada’s August three-day holiday weekend earlier this month.
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders, seen here with Mayor John Tory earlier this month, says he welcomes the funding from the municipal, provincial and federal governments to combat gun violence. (Christopher Katsarov/Canadian Press)
On Monday Federal Crime Reduction Minister Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, announced that Ottawa is giving Ontario $54 over the next three years to combat illegal gun and gang activity.
Most of the funds are earmarked for specialized prosecutors, policing projects and intelligence-gathering efforts in jails.
“This is significant new funding and it will focus on prevention, intervention, enforcement and prosecution related to gun and gang violence in communities,” Blair said.
Police officers remove a gun from the scene of a daylight shooting in the Roncesvalles Avenue and Grenadier Road area on Friday Aug. 16. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press)
The funding announcement followed an incident early Saturday when 30 shots were fired and four people were injured in a north Toronto neighbourhood.
According to Toronto Police statistics there have been 285 shootings so far this year with 430 victims, who include those killed and injured.
That compares with 272 shootings at the same time last year, with 364 victims.
Five years ago, in 2014, there were 120 shootings with 148 victims by mid-August.
With files from CBC, CP, Huffington Post
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