Last Sunday, several hundred people took part in a march to "Stop the Violence". Organized by the Toronto argonauts and sponsored by the Toronto Police association and other organizations, this and other similar "marches" supposedly has a purpose but it is hard to understand how a bunch of people marching does anything that will remotely end or reduce the violence that has plagued Toronto in recent years.
Since last Friday there have been eight shootings in David Miller's Toronto, including the shooting of a 13-year-old boy and a shooting at a McDonald's where small children were present. This summer is shaping up to be a carbon copy of last year when 2005 became known as "the year of the gun" in the city that was once known as Toronto the good.
It's trendy to hold marches in order for the people who participate to show that "they care". Other than that, these marches don't do any good. The downside is that the organizers and others feel that they are actually accomplishing something. Marches have their place when it comes to raising awareness of certain issues that would otherwise be ignored, or to get people to donate money to certain causes such as breast cancer. But anyone who thinks that some gang member in Rexdale is going to give up his gun because a march is being held is going to be sadly disappointed.
and there is no need of a march to raise awareness. Residents of Toronto, especially those who are forced by economic circumstances to live in certain areas of the city know all to well about gun violence. Those who go to sleep at night to the sounds of guns going off need real solutions, not symbolic marches.
When the Stop the Violence march was underway, a man in the Malvern area of Scarborough was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being shot four times. The media, especially those who are sympathetic to shooters whom they love to label "at-risk youth", seemed shocked that someone could actually get shot at the same time a march to end violence was being held. This would all be funny if it wasn't so serious.
During these events that are held to end violence the same generalities are always raised — we have to get all the guns off of the street; we have to stop guns from being brought into Canada, etc. The reality is that what we really need is the political will to combat the scourge of gun crimes and sadly, that is missing.
The federal gun registry should be scrapped and the money that is currently spent to ensure that farmers in Saskatchewan register their hunting rifles should be put into policing in major cities to go after illegal guns. It will probably never happen because the opposition parties prefer the registry to any concrete action.
It has really become apparent in recent weeks how much political correctness actually trumps law enforcement. Radical jihadists are now referred to as "diverse young men" and native protestors are freely allowed to commit criminal acts because they are, well, native protestors. and the gun violence will be allowed to continue rather than risk offending certain communities. While many leaders in the Muslim community are free to tell Muslim parents to monitor their children to see if they are becoming radicalized, it is simply unthinkable to hold that the parents of the trash that are shooting up the city bear any responsibility for the actions of their offspring. The rule of law is quickly becoming subservient to the doctrine of political correctness.
So the argos will march and the shooters will shoot and life (and death) in the big city this year will be pretty much like it was last year.
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