Mayor John Tory’s statement on recent gun violence
"The unacceptable gun violence we've seen in the last few weeks has left me incredibly angry but resolved to work with the police to stamp it out.
As Mayor, the safety of our city is my top priority and one that I share with Chief Mark Saunders and the men and women of the Toronto Police Service.
That's why we're hiring 200 police officers this year, why I've always advocated for tougher gun control and tougher bail conditions for gun crime, and why we're modernizing the police service to ensure there are more officers patrolling the streets.
This morning, I spoke to Chief Saunders at length and he confirmed police are seized with this issue and working relentlessly to bring people to justice. I made it clear that I expect police will do everything possible to root out the thugs responsible for this violence and send a message that we will not tolerate this reckless disregard for life in our city. I again assured the Chief that the City will provide any resources he needs to help address this violence.
I will be reaching out to the provincial and federal governments – both Premier Doug Ford and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale – to discuss how we can work together to ramp up our efforts to fight gang violence and gun crime. I know they are both as committed as I am to putting these gangsters in jail.
As I said at City Council last week, we need to toughen up bail guidelines for those caught committing gun crimes. Countless police officers – from constables to the Chief himself – have told me how frustrated they are by the fact someone they arrest for a gun crime can be back out on the street on bail quickly and ready to cause more mayhem. That is not right and that is something we can stop right now.
I understand there will be those in the coming days who think they have a magic wand to fix this situation. The answers are easy if we work together to deploy more police and support the police to actually get these thugs behind bars and keep them there.
I urge anyone with information about these recent shootings to work with police and Crime Stoppers to help solve these crimes."
