Hipster Duck
Senior Member
GTA murders drop in 2008
Precious Yutangco
staff reporter
Toronto Star
Last year, the GTA became a safer place to live.
Toronto and three of the four regions saw the number of homicides decrease in 2008 or stay the same compared to a year earlier.
The number of murders in Toronto dropped to 70 from 84 in 2007. Durham Region had six murders, the same as the prior year, while York and Halton had one murder each, down from five and two respectively. In the entire GTA, there were nine fewer murders.
The only exception was Peel Region, which experienced its most violent year ever. There were 27 homicides in Peel last year – 11 in Brampton and 16 in Mississauga – up from 17 in 2007 and 10 in 2006.
These numbers appear to support a Statistics Canada report released in July that said Greater Toronto is the safest metropolitan area in Canada, reporting the fewest crimes per capita of any community with more than 500,000 people.
Despite the drop in murders in the GTA, there was no shortage of high-profile killings.
Three of them were domestic murders, including the August death of 7-year-old Katelynn Sampson, whose legal guardian called 911 to say the child had stopped breathing. When emergency officials arrived they saw obvious signs of trauma on her body. Donna Irving and her common-law partner Warren Johnson were charged with first-degree murder.
Residents of a Scarborough neighbourhood were shocked when police carried four bodies out of a home in November. Keith Delong had stabbed his wife Wanda, 64, and their children, Elizabeth, 41, and Richard, 38, before shooting himself.
Later that month, Durham was the scene of a chilling multiple domestic homicide. Gino Petralia, 47, was shot dead by police after he had fatally stabbed Leslie Kelly, 26, at a birthday party. Her husband Rick, 29, and son Nathan, 3, also died of their wounds. Nathan's 5-year-old brother Riley is recovering.
There were two other high-profile multiple murders in Toronto.
Dylan Ellis, 26, and Oliver Martin, 25, were shot dead in June while sitting in their SUV outside a friend's house. Police, who suspect it was a case of mistaken identity, are still looking for suspects.
Adrian Inglis Bannerman, 29, Aaron Brendan Macdonald, 20, and Kurt Atiba Charles, 27, were also shot in an SUV about a month later in an unrelated incident.
TORONTO
It has been three years since the record-setting Summer of the Gun, but firearms are still the weapon of choice for killers in Toronto.
In 2005, two-thirds of the city's 80 homicide victims were killed by a gun. Last year, slightly more than 50 per cent of murder victims died at the end of a barrel – 36 out of 70. That compares to 43 of 84 in 2007 and 29 of 70 in 2006.
PEEL
After seven teenagers were killed this year in the region, Mississauga and Brampton city counsellors vowed to curb gang activity and youth violence. In 2003, there were 39 known gangs in Peel, but last year that had jumped to 108, said Const. Dirk Niles of the intelligence services gang unit. Toronto, which has more than twice as many residents, has roughly 130 gangs, said Michael Chettleburgh, author of Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs and one of North America's leading experts on crime.
Councillors have launched projects to address youth violence in the community. "We have to get the community re-engaged in the lives of young people," Peel Region Councillor Gael Miles said. Miles is among several city councillors and key figures heading the Peel Youth Violence Prevention Committee.
YORK
Plummeting numbers in York Region have left the homicide squad happy that there were fewer victims, but baffled as to why.
In 2006, nine people were murdered in York, followed by five the next year and only one in 2008.
"It's absolutely a surprise for us that we didn't have any more than the one (homicide) ... I wouldn't be able to comment specifically why those numbers have gone down. I mean, we are one of the safest communities in Canada to live in and these numbers absolutely reflect that," said York police Const. Marina Orlovski.
HALTON
Halton Region launched an investigation into its only homicide of 2008 after a 16-year-old boy died in early April, almost two weeks after being beaten as he left a party in Oakville in late March.
"Halton for the most part, if you compare it to Peel and Metro (Toronto) and that, it's more or less a commuter community," said Det. Keith Woudstra of Halton police to explain the low murder rate.
"And a large part of Halton is rural and not largely populated and those dynamics could have some effect on it."
He said it is difficult to determine why the homicide rate has been so low, because it's hard to analyze so little data.
"It's hard to establish any sort of a trend, at least certainly over the past five years. ... The motives for homicides are wide and varied given our numbers are so small," he said.
DURHAM
Durham Region's homicides stayed the same as 2007, sitting at six, which is lower than 2006's 12 murders, but significantly higher than 2005's three.
According to crime expert Chettleburgh, "one homicide is one too many."
But to put crime stats into perspective, "relative to other Canadian cities and certainly relative to large U.S. cities, we live in a very safe city.
"It surprises many Canadians to know that smaller cities in Western provinces, like Winnipeg, for example, have a much higher incidence of homicide relative to their population. In fact, there's more gun crime in places like the Yukon on a per-capita basis than there is in Toronto," he said.
In March, Maclean's magazine released a list of the safest and also the most crime-riddled cities in Canada. In terms of homicides, Most Top 10 cities were west of Ontario, with the exception of the Quebec communities of Arthabaska Region and Gatineau, which ranked No. 1 and 10, respectively.
Meanwhile, Sarnia and Middlesex County ranked within the Top 10 safest communities in terms of murders, with Caledon, Nottawasaga, Halton Region and York Region ranking No. 1, 3, 4 and 5, respectively, in overall safety.
One trend Chettleburgh has noticed is that criminals are moving outside large metropolitan cities such as Toronto, which may explain why crime in Peel is on the rise.
"It's a bit of a displacement, if things are looking too hot in Toronto," he said. "The regions outside of Toronto don't have the (same) level per-capita of police ... Frankly, it's perhaps easier to sell drugs in Kitchener versus Toronto, because Toronto has more officers on the street. There's also much more political pressure to get the criminals off the street."
Chettleburgh said the number of homicides might climb over the next few years if social support and issues go unaddressed, coupled with the financial crisis.
But the GTA is still one of the safest places in the world, he said. "Much of the death and homicides is related to the business of gangs and people who have willingly put themselves in danger," he said. "We stand a much greater chance of dying in an automobile accident or dying of food poisoning than we do as an intended victim of a gun crime.
"We need to keep that in perspective. Toronto is a very safe big city."
Precious Yutangco
staff reporter
Toronto Star
Last year, the GTA became a safer place to live.
Toronto and three of the four regions saw the number of homicides decrease in 2008 or stay the same compared to a year earlier.
The number of murders in Toronto dropped to 70 from 84 in 2007. Durham Region had six murders, the same as the prior year, while York and Halton had one murder each, down from five and two respectively. In the entire GTA, there were nine fewer murders.
The only exception was Peel Region, which experienced its most violent year ever. There were 27 homicides in Peel last year – 11 in Brampton and 16 in Mississauga – up from 17 in 2007 and 10 in 2006.
These numbers appear to support a Statistics Canada report released in July that said Greater Toronto is the safest metropolitan area in Canada, reporting the fewest crimes per capita of any community with more than 500,000 people.
Despite the drop in murders in the GTA, there was no shortage of high-profile killings.
Three of them were domestic murders, including the August death of 7-year-old Katelynn Sampson, whose legal guardian called 911 to say the child had stopped breathing. When emergency officials arrived they saw obvious signs of trauma on her body. Donna Irving and her common-law partner Warren Johnson were charged with first-degree murder.
Residents of a Scarborough neighbourhood were shocked when police carried four bodies out of a home in November. Keith Delong had stabbed his wife Wanda, 64, and their children, Elizabeth, 41, and Richard, 38, before shooting himself.
Later that month, Durham was the scene of a chilling multiple domestic homicide. Gino Petralia, 47, was shot dead by police after he had fatally stabbed Leslie Kelly, 26, at a birthday party. Her husband Rick, 29, and son Nathan, 3, also died of their wounds. Nathan's 5-year-old brother Riley is recovering.
There were two other high-profile multiple murders in Toronto.
Dylan Ellis, 26, and Oliver Martin, 25, were shot dead in June while sitting in their SUV outside a friend's house. Police, who suspect it was a case of mistaken identity, are still looking for suspects.
Adrian Inglis Bannerman, 29, Aaron Brendan Macdonald, 20, and Kurt Atiba Charles, 27, were also shot in an SUV about a month later in an unrelated incident.
TORONTO
It has been three years since the record-setting Summer of the Gun, but firearms are still the weapon of choice for killers in Toronto.
In 2005, two-thirds of the city's 80 homicide victims were killed by a gun. Last year, slightly more than 50 per cent of murder victims died at the end of a barrel – 36 out of 70. That compares to 43 of 84 in 2007 and 29 of 70 in 2006.
PEEL
After seven teenagers were killed this year in the region, Mississauga and Brampton city counsellors vowed to curb gang activity and youth violence. In 2003, there were 39 known gangs in Peel, but last year that had jumped to 108, said Const. Dirk Niles of the intelligence services gang unit. Toronto, which has more than twice as many residents, has roughly 130 gangs, said Michael Chettleburgh, author of Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs and one of North America's leading experts on crime.
Councillors have launched projects to address youth violence in the community. "We have to get the community re-engaged in the lives of young people," Peel Region Councillor Gael Miles said. Miles is among several city councillors and key figures heading the Peel Youth Violence Prevention Committee.
YORK
Plummeting numbers in York Region have left the homicide squad happy that there were fewer victims, but baffled as to why.
In 2006, nine people were murdered in York, followed by five the next year and only one in 2008.
"It's absolutely a surprise for us that we didn't have any more than the one (homicide) ... I wouldn't be able to comment specifically why those numbers have gone down. I mean, we are one of the safest communities in Canada to live in and these numbers absolutely reflect that," said York police Const. Marina Orlovski.
HALTON
Halton Region launched an investigation into its only homicide of 2008 after a 16-year-old boy died in early April, almost two weeks after being beaten as he left a party in Oakville in late March.
"Halton for the most part, if you compare it to Peel and Metro (Toronto) and that, it's more or less a commuter community," said Det. Keith Woudstra of Halton police to explain the low murder rate.
"And a large part of Halton is rural and not largely populated and those dynamics could have some effect on it."
He said it is difficult to determine why the homicide rate has been so low, because it's hard to analyze so little data.
"It's hard to establish any sort of a trend, at least certainly over the past five years. ... The motives for homicides are wide and varied given our numbers are so small," he said.
DURHAM
Durham Region's homicides stayed the same as 2007, sitting at six, which is lower than 2006's 12 murders, but significantly higher than 2005's three.
According to crime expert Chettleburgh, "one homicide is one too many."
But to put crime stats into perspective, "relative to other Canadian cities and certainly relative to large U.S. cities, we live in a very safe city.
"It surprises many Canadians to know that smaller cities in Western provinces, like Winnipeg, for example, have a much higher incidence of homicide relative to their population. In fact, there's more gun crime in places like the Yukon on a per-capita basis than there is in Toronto," he said.
In March, Maclean's magazine released a list of the safest and also the most crime-riddled cities in Canada. In terms of homicides, Most Top 10 cities were west of Ontario, with the exception of the Quebec communities of Arthabaska Region and Gatineau, which ranked No. 1 and 10, respectively.
Meanwhile, Sarnia and Middlesex County ranked within the Top 10 safest communities in terms of murders, with Caledon, Nottawasaga, Halton Region and York Region ranking No. 1, 3, 4 and 5, respectively, in overall safety.
One trend Chettleburgh has noticed is that criminals are moving outside large metropolitan cities such as Toronto, which may explain why crime in Peel is on the rise.
"It's a bit of a displacement, if things are looking too hot in Toronto," he said. "The regions outside of Toronto don't have the (same) level per-capita of police ... Frankly, it's perhaps easier to sell drugs in Kitchener versus Toronto, because Toronto has more officers on the street. There's also much more political pressure to get the criminals off the street."
Chettleburgh said the number of homicides might climb over the next few years if social support and issues go unaddressed, coupled with the financial crisis.
But the GTA is still one of the safest places in the world, he said. "Much of the death and homicides is related to the business of gangs and people who have willingly put themselves in danger," he said. "We stand a much greater chance of dying in an automobile accident or dying of food poisoning than we do as an intended victim of a gun crime.
"We need to keep that in perspective. Toronto is a very safe big city."
