Mayor John Tory says that he will convene a meeting with mayors and police chiefs from across the region in January to discuss ways to combat the rise in gun and gang violence.
Tory made the comment to CP24 on Saturday morning in the wake of the publication of a Canadian Press report indicating that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will move forward with his plan to let municipalities ban the sale of handguns, even if provinces put up opposition.
“I am going to be gathering the mayors and the police chiefs of the cities around Toronto in the New Year to discuss this and see what else we can do because you just can’t just ask the federal government to do things and you can’t just ask the police to do it all,” said Tory, who has been supportive of a handgun ban in the past. “We have to work together to do every single thing we can across this region to stop the gun violence we have been seeing far too much of the last couple years.”
Tory said that he has already reached out to his fellow GTA mayors to lay the groundwork for the meeting and will also arrange to have representatives from the provincial and federal governments in attendance.
He said that “investing in neighbourhoods” and “changing some of the ridiculous applications of bail laws” are two ways to get to the heart of the gang problem but he said that he intersected in hearing what others have to say as well.
“It is all hands on deck. The police, the mayors, the other governments. We all need to do everything we possibly can to make sure communities remain safe,” he said.
So far this year there have been 71 homicides in Toronto, which is down from the record 96 in 2018. Shootings, however, are up with a total of 464 occurrences.
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