Toronto council repeats call for handgun ban after shooting near Raptors rally

Thestar.com
June 19, 2019
Alyshah Hasham

Toronto city council has reiterated a call for the federal government to ban the sale of handguns in the city as police continue to investigate a shooting that injured four people during Monday’s NBA Championship celebration at Nathan Phillips Square.

As three men charged with illegal firearm possession after the shooting appeared in court on Tuesday, councillors voted 22 to 2 without debate to have the federal government ban the sale of handguns in Toronto and for the provincial government to ban the sale of ammunition, along with other increased firearms protections.

Council first asked for a ban on handgun sales following the shooting on Danforth Ave. last year in which two people died.

Tuesday’s vote came after city staff reported that the municipal government can do little to prevent the spread of guns on its own, with no control over the sale or regulation of firearms. The province confirmed Tuesday that it will not support “banning legal firearms” which, it said would not meaningfully address the problem of gun violence.

The council vote also came after Bill Blair, the federal minister in charge of border security and organized crime, said Monday that the federal Liberals will campaign on allowing municipalities to place additional restrictions on handguns but will not enact a national handgun ban.

Police seized two firearms after Monday’s shooting but not the gun they believe was used in the shooting. Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders said that, “on first blush,” the bullet casings taken from the crime scene did not match the guns police seized.

None of the three men arrested after the shooting have been charged with discharging a firearm in the incident that left four people injured.

Louis March, the founder of Zero Gun Violence, said there continues to be a failure to support effective youth and anti-poverty programs that will address the root causes of violence.

“Toronto is an internationally acclaimed city … we do a lot of things right. I have to ask, why can’t we just deal with the gun issue right?” he said in an interview Tuesday. “Politicians have to be held responsible and accountable for their inaction and the damage this is causing to our city.”

March said the city needs to appoint an anti-gun violence commissioner whose job it would be to catalogue, monitor and assess the many various initiatives that are being funded and identify gaps and needs that exist now.

Last July, city council approved a $50-million gun violence plan which relied entirely on funding from other levels of government, particularly the federal government. Most of the plan remained unfunded as of earlier this year.

Advocates of a handgun ban said Tuesday that only a federal initiative will provide the consistency needed to effectively limit public access to them.

“I think it is a massive mistake to pass the buck to provinces and municipalities,” said Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control. “A patchwork combination of municipal and provincial legislation will lead us in the wrong direction.”

Dr. Najma Ahmed said the emergency room at St. Michael’s Hospital, where she works as a trauma surgeon, was filled for hours after Monday’s shooting with people who were hurt or trampled in the chaos, as well as people who suffered panic attacks and pregnant women concerned about going into labour early.

“I’m sure lots of kids had nightmares last night, after what was otherwise an amazing celebratory event,” Ahmed said. “We think things are good up here, that we don’t have a problem like the U.S. But compared to other economically developed countries we do have a problem.

“This is now two mass shootings in the city, in a public place in two years. Is the country we want to live in?”

Marion Ringuette, a spokesperson for the Office of the Solicitor General, said in a written statement that the provincial government does not support a handgun ban, but has invested $25 million over four years in new funding for the Toronto Police Service to fight gun and gang violence. Questions about what specific funding has been allocated to youth and community anti-gun violence programs in Toronto were not answered, though funding for some youth-targeted measures were announced in March.