Outside the Foot Locker, five or six of people stepped onto the roadway, so Tarnowski was forced to stop the car. That's when Verechtchaguine noticed a man a few metres to the south of the car near the doorway of the apparel store, he said."A guy raises his hands upwards and appears to fire a shot," he said. "At the beginning I thought it was fireworks."
Then Verechtchaguine's attention was drawn by two or three other shots. "I look to my right. I see a person with his hand extended and I see the gun in his hand. I hear two or three shots and I see the flashes and after that I get down in the car."
"After the first two bangs, people started to scream and people started to get down on the ground," he said.
-- Toronto Star
Former chief justice Roy McMurtry and Alvin Curling, a former speaker of the Ontario legislature, said poverty, racism, poor housing and a culturally insensitive education system are leaving some young people with a sense of hopelessness that can "all too often explode into violence."The authors acknowledged they offered no simple, or quick fix solutions, but said one of the most "urgent" needs is a plan for a universal and community-based access to mental health services for children and youth.
The report is based on the contention that "Racism is becoming a more serious and entrenched problem" in Ontario. This is a ridiculous statement. As we have written before in this space, Canada has become probably the least racist country in the entire world.
It is also absurd to blame a lack of transportation infrastructure or economic opportunities... We are now coming off one of the longest and deepest economic booms in Canadian history — a period during which retail stores, restaurants and other businesses were desperate for new workers (of any skin color). The idea that any group of young people turned to crime because they were systematically shunned is absurd.
-- Jonathan Kay, National Post
