Spike in guns, gang violence spur summit in Canada

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON

The government here has convened a gun and gang violence summit to find ways to counteract troubling increases in firearms and gang activities, Canadian media reported Wednesday.

“We’re seeing young males resorting to the use of firearms where they hadn’t in the past,” said Insp. Mark Patterson, a member of the guns and gangs unit of Ottawa police.

The Ottawa guns and gangs summit brings together politicians, police and other crime experts, academics and members of various communities.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, who is hosting the summit, announced in November that the federal government would target CAN$327.6 million over five years to counter gun and gangs, and $100 million annually afterward.

Montreal and Toronto have since experienced a spike in firearm crimes and the troubling trend in a country that has historically had relatively low figures has not spared the capital of Ottawa.

The city has 74 shootings in 2017, up from 32 in 2013.

“Since 2013, we’ve seen, in our largest cities, that gang-related homicides have almost doubled,” said Statistics Canada’s Lynn Barr-Telford.

In 2016, Canada sustained 141 gang-related killings, with 112 firearm related.

Compared to the U.S., Canada has much stricter gun laws and less gun-related homicides but firearms are routinely smuggled into Canada from the U.S., with more than 91 percent of the seizures at the border taken from Americans.

Ottawa police have previously said illegal handguns smuggled in from the U.S. are readily available for $1,500 to $3,000. Police said the latest statistics from 2013 show 60 percent of all guns used in crimes in the province of Ontario came from the U.S.

But one in about seven guns seized at the border are from returning Canadians, adding to the gun-smuggling problem.

Also, unlike its neighbor to the south, mass shootings are rare in Canada, like the massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school last month.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised new regulations to counter gun smuggling and enhanced background checks for restricted weapons – promises he has yet to deliver on.

The promise, summit and a crackdown on illegal guns coming into Canada provide a sharp contrast Canada’s American neighbors.

The Parkland shooting, where 17 victims were killed, spurred the usual cry for tougher gun control, but interest is already waning.

A day after the shooting, a major U.S. newspaper detailed how national lawmakers dismiss the desires of the majority of Americans who want tougher gun control laws.

U.S. President Donald Trump appeared last week to be standing up to the National Rifle Association, which is the powerful gun lobby, but a day later backed off his support for control measures.