In the early morning hours of april 24, gunfire erupted in the Prestige Palace, a North York nightclub. When the shooting stopped, six people had been wounded and Livette Miller, a young mother of four whose husband had recently died of lung cancer, lay dead on the floor, dying instantly in the hail of bullets.
This was not the first shooting that has taken place in or just outside of a Toronto nightclub and will not be the last. although not the case, it seems that these shootings are a regular weekend occurrence at clubs in Scarborough, North York and the Entertainment District in downtown Toronto. Steps need to be taken to minimize, if not end, these random and gratuitous acts of violence that take place in the city that was once known as "Toronto the Good".
Toronto City Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, whose ward includes several of these clubs including the Prestige Palace, is proposing that the city take action. Mammoliti wants the city of Toronto to require nightclubs to install metal detectors or other similar security measures as a condition to these clubs obtaining the necessary licenses to operate. The North York councillor was absolutely correct when he said that if the city can require nightclubs to prohibit patrons from smoking on the premises, they can take steps to prevent customers from entering these places armed with guns and knives.
No security system can be 100 per cent foolproof. But metal detectors do work. after metal detectors were introduced at major airports around the world, the hijackings that they sought to eliminate virtually ceased. Recent hijackings, such as those carried out by the September 11, 2001 terrorists, happened not because guns and knives were not kept off airplanes but because the hijackers used weapons that were not considered risks to security screeners in the pre 9/11 world.
Unfortunately, Mammoliti will likely face an uphill battle with his colleagues on council. Council likes to make easy, non controversial decisions and a decision to require metal detectors if far from an easy one. It will be difficult to define exactly which premises should be required to implement stringent security measures. It the proposed law is applied too narrowly, it will be ineffective. If applied to broadly, it will give the impression, to residents and citizens alike that the city if far more dangerous than it actually is. While many of these incidents take place in "nightclubs" violent acts also occur in bars and restaurants. Should all licensed premises be required to have metal detectors, including mom and pop restaurants? Deciding these issues will not be easy.
It is a reality that many of these nightclubs are frequented by young people of certain ethnic backgrounds and there will undoubtedly be calls of racism if moves are taken to enhance security in these establishments. That would be a significant factor in council making the decision to wash their hands of the whole problem. It does not seem to matter to the politically correct powers-that-be that where patrons are primarily made up of an ethnic group, it is members of these same groups who become the victims of the violent acts that take place.
Yet there is virtually no other way to stop these all too common acts of violence. Police are powerless to do anything to stop these crimes before the fact. Entering certain establishments to conduct random searches would breach the Charter of Rights even though there might be a practical certainty that some of the people in the clubs would be armed with weapons. Only the nightclub owners are in a position to stop the proliferation of guns and knives. The only realistic way to attempt to eliminate weapons would be a mandatory search of everyone who wants to enter these nightclubs. Merely having security guards is not the answer; many, including the Prestige Palace where the multiple shootings occurred, had security guards at the door.
Ending the violence will not be easy but Mammoliti is on the right track. But it remains to be seen if city council has the political will to actually do something to stem the all too common violence.
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