Scarborough Shootings

[The_Falcon]

In the last 2 days, their have been 4 shootings in Scarborough. 3 people have been killed one is in ICU. The cops don‘t have motives but the suspect they are related to gangs and drugs except for the guy killed up the road from me (at Nielson and Finch). They believe he was killed over a road rage incident, or worse yet a case of mistaken identity, cause the suspect vehicle in this case is similiar to one that was involved in gangland shooting in broad daylight in the same neighbourhood not more than 2 weeks ago. This has got to stop. If drug dealers and gang banger wanna kill each other over stupidity then fine have at her and call when it is over. But all to often innocent people get hurt and killed by these retarded f***s, and thats what pisses me off. Short of going all Boondock Saints vigilante style on these @$$holes (which is the method I prefer btw), we should stick these guys in prison camp in say Nunavut or better on Ellesmere Island. And we should start putting people with some balls in parliament, to appoint the judges to enforce the laws we have, and to use the Charters not withstanding clause to claw back some of the liberties we have allowed these pukes. I am tired of all this crap. I anyone needs me, I will be looking for my black balaclava, and a silenced pistol or two. :threat: :akimbo: :fifty:

 

[1feral1]

Sadly its an ethnic issue. Here in Sydney, one can usually identify the ehtnicity of the crims, by the weapons used.

Now the anti-gun mob will be on the band wagon to have all handguns made illegal. It did not work in the UK, and firearms restriction here in Australia has not decreased crime, only made law abiding citizens turn their guns in. Meanwhile the ethnic gangs of Sydney roam the streets, arms with Glocks, and SKK rifle.

Cheers from Sydney,

Wes

 

[L/MCpl_Argyll_ Kurrgan]

Start practicing your Irish Accent. And don‘t forget the rope...

 

[nbk]

I like the Ellesmere Island idea a lot. After all, how many gangbangers were there in the Soviet Union when people knew they would be sent off to Siberian gulags? Even though I sound sarcastic, I am being quite serious. These people make a choice to become involved in gangs, they make a choice to be treated in the worst possible way when they get caught. Make sure they know what horrors they will have in store for them if they choose to have that sort of life, and if they do it anyways, then punish them in the most severe manner.

This country has all sorts of social programs for people in "poverty", so there is no excuse anyone has to be a part of these american style gangs which have sprung up. This problem needs to be nipped in the butt now, before we degrade down to the level of american cities. I respect Fantino because he sees this, but the politicians are too ignorant and corrupt to bother working with the police and acting on this. They may act when it becomes out of control, but then they will just stumble around spitting money at everything and not solving the actual problem.

As well some drugs (marijuana, LSD, mushrooms, non addictive drugs) should be legalized, and sold in stores like alcohol is, so that these drug dealers will be forced out of business. After all when was the last time you heard of some bootlegger selling illegal alcohol on the streets of Toronto? As well PROPER education and studies should be given and conducted on these drugs so the government can say "Use it this way, do not use this way as it is unhealthy...(etc)".

As well the government could make proper laws concerning them. Do not operate motor vehicles while intoxicated. Do not be intoxicated in public places. Your boss reserves the right to fire your *** if you show up to work stoned. Etc. Basically teach people to respect these powerful substances, and use them responsibly.

As well part of the extra income generated from the government selling these things can go into treatment programs for the very very small amount of people who do become dependant on these things.

 

[Lexi]

The only way any criminal can truly be forgiven of what he does is by repaying the damage. That means, if a man murders another man, he won‘t be forgiven until he DIES.

What I‘m saying is.. we‘ve got to use the death penalty more. Too many of these murders get back into the street and continue their drug-motivated, hate-and-violence filled lives.

When you think about it, really, over 3 quarters of all crimes seem to be motivated by drug addiction. That can mean cigs, booze or the real bad stuff. People rob stores for money. What will they use that money for? They can‘t walk into a normal store and use money they stole. It‘s obvious, they‘re going to buy drugs with it. I could go on and on and on, but I‘m going to spare my fingers this time.

In conclusion, I‘d just like to say, any murderer should be hanged from a nice tree downtown, out where everyone can see.
That way, onlookers who are could-be criminals will know the penalties for such horrid and injust actions.

 

[Pte. Bloggins]

If we‘re gonna hang every murderer we‘ve got out here from a tree, I‘ll be dodging corpses my entire way to school.

Now isn‘t that a nice way to start the morning.

 

[koalorka]

**Deleted by Moderator**

 

[koalorka]

The problem with the death penalty is that you will end up likely killing many innocent people.

 

[bossi]

The problem with the death penalty is that you will end up likely killing many innocent people.

Hmmm ... and that would be different from what‘s happened recently ... how?

There have been some tragic murders lately:
- The father hit by a stray bullet, who had been sitting innocently at home watching television with his son (who watched him bleed to death)

- The young mother who walked in on a holdup in a travel agency

It‘s a cultural problem - and, of course, the solution as proferred by the mayor of Toronto ... stricter regulation of firearms sold legally ... sigh ... (oh, yah - that‘ll really strike fear into the hearts of the punks carrying Saturday Night Specials ... plus, they‘ll know that the local citizenry will be increasingly unarmed ...)

I still like the story of the town (in Texas) where every resident was required to own a firearm. Yeehaw - Giddyup.

And - to answer a question posed previously - I‘m not a bleeding heart, but the phenomenon of youth gangs is centred on the problem of acceptance by society. For whatever reason, some groups feel rejected by society - thus, they seek alternative recognition and acceptance. Unfortunately, they often times find it in criminal organisations. It‘s been the same thing for any large group of immigrants at any point in time in North American history - the new arrivals have difficulty being accepted by the "established" society - criminals prey upon them, their easily impressionable adolescent youths/teenagers are recruited by criminal elements, etc. - it keeps going downhill.
In short - it‘s a situation that has happened several times in recent history (e.g. with the Mafia, the Tongs, or whatever criminal organisation is associated with the largest recent wave of immigration). One of the most significant problems of late has been the influx of immigrants from EXTREMELY troubled countries - in the past, it was normally accepted that when you emigrated you left your troubles behind - not so, sadly, with some recent arrivals.

It‘s a shame - following the Second World War, and even going back to the First World War, Canada was selective/discerning as to who we welcomed to our country. At some point in time, we "lost the bubble" and have been welcoming not only cannon fodder for the gangs and organised crime, but also the kingpins themselves.

Pity ...

 

[shaun_bougie]

It‘d be nice to say we need to use the death penalty more if we had it. It‘s no longer an option in Canada since 1962...or 1964 when the last person was hanged to death in a Sudbury, Ontario jail. It would be too much hassle for the government to reinstate this form of punishment. There would be too many what ifs and too many people in Canada would be outraged by the idea. I‘m not going to say if I‘m one of them. I‘ve never really given the idea of "An eye for an eye" as the old testament says any serious thought. I would agree that they need some serious punishment. But who do we go after? The kids that are following the kingpins? Not likely that many of them would say anything. They‘re already too cocky. Policing doesn‘t have the money to follow them around for too long. So that almost knocks that out. To stop the problem, we need the money. To get the money, we have to get the government to realize that we have a serious problem.
As for the post about the Toronto mayor saying we need stricter gun control laws....bull. I don‘t agree with that at all. There are more firearms passing across the border everyday than any of our politicians want to admit. Reason for this...Canadian Customs officers are unarmed. Would you want to search a car or a truck knowing that if it‘s full of guns someone could snap and that‘s it for your life? I sure as **** wouldn‘t. So arming the customs officials and allowing them to do their job properly will help quite a bit. With these guns coming across the border, it‘s just feeding the problem. The government just enacted gun legislation as an excuse to get into people‘s homes. It allows police to go in and make sure "firearms are stored properly." Guess what, if you‘re checking firearms you can look around the house. Anything else you see is fair game. It‘s called the "Plain-view Doctrine." If I‘m doing my job at a call and I see drugs, I have grounds to go get a warrant. Now I can search the rest of the house. In theory it‘s a great idea. But how many drug lords do you know of that have registered firearms. Probably not too many. As you can see it‘s a vicious cycle. Well, that‘s about all I have to say for today. Hopefully some of you can understand what I‘m saying. Feel free to comment
Cheers,

 

[crhc]

The laws are out there. The judges and the supreme court are making there own law. Defence liars are making a bundle. It is not whether a man is guilty or innocent it all comes down to whether the Police did a proper investigation.

If the bad guy is convicted he can say he was treated harshly " The 1 ply tiolet paper scratched my bum."

The idiots behind bars have it better the our boys ( & girls ) in the field. It is utter nonsense.

 

[wongskc]

http://www.stickdeath.com/watch.htm

A little bit of humour relating to this topic, but I‘m sure a lot of us feel this way. :sniper: :akimbo: :mg: :fifty:

 

[Slim]

The area that is having the most trouble with gun violence right now is(but not limited to) the north Scarborough area of Malvern.

The problem seems to be drug related. Basically gangs fighting for control of territory to sell drugs.

They are becoming more and more brazen about shooting whomever they choose regardless of the time of day, ect.

I find it kind of scary and do believe, to some degree, that the crimes are being committed by different ethnic groups that carried on in the same fashion in whatever country they origionaly came from.

There are also middle class kids involved(???).

I am really interested to see what sort of solution can be used to stop this cicle of violence!?

I have my doubts...

 

[Fishbone Jones]

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[bossi]

I am really interested to see what sort of solution can be used to stop this cicle of violence!?

Hot on the heels of your question, I could barely believe my eyes this morning ... (just goes to show you how naive I am).

Based on this information, I‘ve got a suggested solution: Let‘s stop allowing CRIMINAL scum and KNOWN FELONS into Canada. We‘ve got enough scum already - we don‘t need to import more (heck - the federal Liberal Party is a breeding party for scum - if only we could cull the herd and deport some of them ... grrr ... just kidding)


War thugs find haven in Canada
Post identifies war crimes suspects whose names Ottawa would keep hidden

Stewart Bell, Michael Friscolanti and Adrian Humphreys
National Post
Saturday, March 06, 2004


One was a militia commander responsible for systematic human rights abuses in Ghana. Another was a Sri Lankan soldier who buried torture victims in mass graves. Yet another was part of an Indian army unit that tortured and killed Sikhs.

The National Post has obtained a secret government list that names dozens of people wanted by Canadian authorities for their suspected involvement in war crimes. They were supposed to be deported, but never were.

Immigration officials have no idea where they are.

While a few are wanted only for questioning, most were ordered to leave Canada for committing atrocities in such countries as Chile, the Congo and Cambodia. Instead of surrendering for deportation, they went into hiding. Immigration officers have so far been unable to find them.

But the federal government will not let Canadians know who they are. The list of lost war criminals is such a closely guarded secret that police say even they did not have it until last summer. When the Post asked the immigration department to release it, officials took more than a year to decide the names could not be made public for privacy reasons.

Although the government will not disclose the names, the Post has obtained a leaked copy of the Investigative Handbook of the Ontario Regional War Crimes Unit, dated Summer 2003, which names 62 people of various nationalities wanted on arrest warrants due to suspected involvement in crimes against humanity.

A third of the names on the list can be tied to war crimes cases before Canadian courts and tribunals through public documents (files on the others remain sealed), and some of their stories raise questions about whether the government is doing enough to track Canada‘s missing war criminals.

Chea Say was an official in the Cambodian police, which tortured and executed opponents of the communist regime. Caught in Canada, he was supposed to be deported in October, 1997. But he was a "no show" for his deportation date, according to his refugee file.

An immigration officer went to his last known address but found no trace of Mr. Say. His landlord said he had left no forwarding address. An arrest warrant was issued on Nov. 20, 1997, but he could not be found.

But Mr. Say was hardly in hiding. He was an active member of Toronto‘s Cambodian community and could often be found at fundraising and cultural events. He "hasn‘t made any concerted effort to hide from immigration," his lawyer told a hearing.

Mr. Say served as a volunteer coordinator at the Canadian Cambodian Association of Ontario, a registered charity funded by the federal and Ontario governments. His job was to phone members of the community and persuade them to attend fundraisers and other community functions.

"Sometimes he was there. I met him," said Kim Huot Sreng, the association president. "He told me he‘s afraid to go back to Cambodia. He told me he got a job, maybe at a grocery or a warehouse."

Yet for six years, his whereabouts remained a mystery to immigration authorities. Only on Dec. 3, 2003, when Mr. Say and his wife, Vouch Lang Song, came forward to apply to stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds, was he finally arrested. He has still not been deported.

"I would like to say please pardon me for my previous offences that I have done," he said at a hearing upon his arrest late last year. "I have been here in Canada for 10 years. I have a place with the living standard [sic], law and order here in Canada."

Whether he has behaved in Canada is not at issue. Under federal immigration law, foreigners complicit in crimes against humanity are barred from entering Canada.

Those caught in the immigration screening system are supposed to be swiftly deported, but it does not always work that way. Documents released under the Access to Information Act show the immigration department has lost track of 40,000 migrants who were supposed to be deported and never were. But perhaps most troubling are the war criminals. They range from hardened torturers to senior members of repressive regimes responsible for grave abuses.

"Some of them have been through the determination by the Immigration and Refugee Board that in fact they are complicit in those things," said Paul Armstrong, director of tactical intelligence at the Canada Border Services Agency, which is responsible for war criminals.

"And others are people, for example, that might not have appeared for an examination or an immigration inquiry where we had information to suggest they were complicit in those activities."

Of those identified as wanted, one has since been caught, one turned himself in, one left Canada on his own, one is serving a criminal sentence in Canada and there is an unconfirmed report that one has returned to his home country, he said. The whereabouts of the others are not known.

Officials say some may have slipped out of the country undetected, but there is no evidence to support that and they might just as easily be living in Vancouver, Winnipeg or Montreal. Some have been on the loose for a decade.

"For the rest, we don‘t know," Mr. Armstrong said. "But our immigration warrants are put into CPIC, the Canadian Police Information Centre, so that, should they come to the attention of any peace officer across Canada, they can bring them to our attention."

Officials have successfully removed 281 people from Canada for war crimes since 1997, 48 of them in the last fiscal year, ending March 31, 2003. Hundreds more have been stopped before they even entered. But for every five war criminals who actually get deported, one goes missing.

The case of Ahmed Hussein Abdurahman is typical. After serving as Somalia‘s minister of defence during a period in which government troops massacred hundreds of political opponents, Mr. Abdurahman arrived at Toronto‘s Pearson airport on June 27, 1993, and said only that he had once worked as a government administrator.

Canadian investigators soon learned he was actually a long-serving official in the government of Siad Barre, the dictator responsible for widespread abuses. But one day Mr. Abdurahman just disappeared. At least seven other senior Somali war criminals similarly came to Canada and disappeared.

An official at the Canada Border Services Agency said investigators cannot be out on the streets canvassing for the lost torturers. "We have to count on tips from the community, and many of them, that‘s how they get caught," she said. As for Mr. Say, she said, "If this guy was active in the community and nobody came forward, it‘s difficult."

But while the government wants community members to report war criminals, it is not willing to identify them, making it all but impossible for Canadians to be of much assistance.

Shortly after he was sworn in as Canada‘s new Justice Minister, Irwin Cotler said that going after war criminals would be one of his top priorities. But the apparent ease with which wanted war criminals have succeeded in evading justice raises serious questions at a time when foreign capitals are watching Ottawa closely, looking to gauge its response to global terrorism.

Under the current system, even those who go underground to escape deportation have gone unpunished. Jian Qui Chen was a security guard at two Chinese hospitals that performed forced abortions. Pregnant women were "dragged in to have abortions performed, kicking and screaming," according to his refugee file.

He was found to be complicit in crimes against humanity and was to be deported. He was supposed to show up to finalize the paperwork for his deportation in July, 2001. Instead, he disappeared and a warrant was issued. He evaded authorities for the next two years, but on Aug. 27, 2003, he went to a government office in Toronto seeking a health form and was arrested. But an Immigration and Refugee Board judge later ordered him set free.

WANTED FOR WAR CRIMES

Here are 20 of the 62 wanted war criminals named on an internal list compiled last summer. They were supposed to be deported from Canada but they never were. Although some have since been picked up, Canadian authorities have no idea where the others are hiding.

AFGHANISTAN

Harooni Ahmad: A member of KHAD, Afghanistan‘s secret police. He came to Canada in 1994 but was found to be complicit in crimes against humanity. While he was appealing the decision, he married and they had a Canadian-born son.

Nazir Ahmad Rasuli: An informer for the Afghan Central Committee. He brought "suspicious" people to the attention of KHAD. The Immigration and Refugee Board said he was complicit in crimes against humanity, notably "endless beatings, electrical shocks to the groin, nails ripped from fingers."

CAMBODIA

Chea Say: He ran the training unit of the Cambodian police, which tortured and executed opponents of the communist government. A Canadian judge found he had committed crimes against humanity. He was scheduled to be deported on Oct. 30, 1997, but never showed up. Rearrested on Dec. 3, 2003. CAPTURED

CHINA

Jian Qui Chen: A security guard at two hospitals in China that performed forced abortions. The Federal Court upheld his deportation but he went into hiding and a warrant was issued on July 17, 2001, indicating he was wanted for "crimes against humanity." He was recaptured on Aug. 27, 2003, but the IRB again ordered his release pending his deportation. CAPTURED

EL SALVADOR

Saul Vicente Ramirez: A corporal and then sub-sergeant in the El Salvador army. Although the Federal Court ruled he never pulled the trigger, he watched fellow troops commit atrocities on civilians. "They would bring these people unarmed and they would torture them and then they would kill them," he said. He fled to the United States, where he was arrested.

GERMANY

Johann Leprich: A member of the SS Death‘s Head Battalion. He was a guard at a Nazi concentration camp where Jews, gypsies, Jehovah‘s Witnesses and Poles were starved, beaten, tortured and killed by "gassing, hanging, strangling, heart injection, electrocution, beating, drowning, torturing, burning, starving and shooting." After the war, he removed his SS tattoo and moved to Detroit. When he was caught, he fled to Canada. He hid for 16 years, partly in Windsor, Ont., until he was caught in Michigan last July. CAPTURED

GHANA

Frank Berko: Chairman of the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution, a militia in Ghana‘s Sampa District. The Federal Court of Canada ruled he was an accomplice to "systematic and grave human rights abuses."

INDIA

Gurpal Singh: Served in the Punjab Armed Police between November, 1992, and February, 1995. He repeatedly witnessed fellow officers torturing and killing Sikhs. During an IRB hearing, he insisted he never participated in the torture, but rather stood guard at the main gate of the police headquarters while the beatings occurred.

SOMALIA

Ahmed Hussein Abdurahman: Somalia‘s minister of defence. His troops massacred up to 400 opponents at demonstrations. He was also justice minister and attorney-general in the regime of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. When he came to Canada in 1993, he said he was an "administrator."

Ahmed Abdulkadir Aden: A member of the Red Berets, which a Federal Court judge ruled "was an organization principally directed to a limited and brutal purpose, that is, to terrorize the people of Somalia."

Khalif Mohamed Duale: A diplomat for the Siad Barre regime. He was ruled to have been an influential government official complicit in war crimes.

Adem Hersi Esse: Former Somali ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

Mohamed Farah: Former Somali diplomat who sought sanctuary in Canada.

Mohamed Gaashan: A former vice-minister of health, finance and labour in Somalia in the 1980s during the reign of Siad Barre. After the collapse of the Siad Barre regime, he moved to Toronto and disappeared.

Yussuf Abdi Ibrahim: He was deemed a war criminal because he had been a senior official in the Siad Barre regime. He was ordered to report to the IRB for an inquiry on Nov. 9, 1994, but never showed up and has not been seen since.

Mohamud Mohamed: A former colonel in the Somali army who fled to Canada.

Guled Mohamed Siad: The son of Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, he served as a diplomat in his father‘s regime and was vice-chairman of the Somali Petroleum Agency.

SRI LANKA

Illandaridevage Kulatunga: A sergeant in the Sri Lankan Army in the early 1990s. "Kapila" arrested innocent civilians, stood by while his comrades tortured and killed them, and helped bury the bodies to hide the evidence. He later travelled to Victoria, B.C., as a boxer on Sri Lanka‘s Commonwealth Games team. After losing his first fight, he fled to Toronto and filed a refugee claim. He has not been seen since 1997.

Debalathas Sinnathurai: Paid "taxes" to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorist group. Later, he was arrested in Colombo and accused of being an LTTE member who had come to the capital to carry out terrorist activities. He came to Canada in 1996 and made a refugee claim that was rejected in September, 2000. His refugee file makes no specific mention of war crimes.

UGANDA

Abdul Holyfield: Was "complicit in the arrest, beatings and torture of numerous individuals from 1991 to 1993," when he served in the Ugandan military, according to the war crimes unit. His refugee claim was turned down in 1995 and his appeal to the Federal Court was denied three months later. Meanwhile, he was convicted of credit card fraud and other offences and served jail time in Guelph. Once on parole, he was deported to Uganda under escort on Nov. 17, 1998. But his appearance on the warrant list suggests he has since returned to Canada.

Source: "Warrant Case List," Citizenship and Immigration Canada, War Crimes Unit, 2003.

 

[Slim]

Bossi

Thank you for posting that...I was remiss in not backing my post up with relevant information from an alternate sourse.

I believe the point has been made...

 

[bossi]

Here‘s some more info on how to combat gang violence - similar to how the Brits defeated the communist insurgents in Malaya by cutting their legs out from under them, plus a "snapshot" of how ordinary citizens are responding (interesting to note - the LAPD advises against vigilantes, but you can see in the second story that tempers are doing a slow boil ...).
Finally, a good news story - somebody whose actions speak louder than words:


LAPD advises on gang fighting
By JACK BOLAND, TORONTO SUN

Some battle-hardened LAPD gang unit officers offered some sage advice to Torontonians who are struggling to cope with a spate of shootings and suspected gangland violence. Los Angeles officer Bill Ramsay, who used to deal with the day-to-day goings-on of L.A. street gangs, said the key to beating gangs starts in the community.

"There is a point, and it depends on how much the society wants to tolerate," he said. "If a society wants to tolerate it, then it is gonna be flourishing. If they don‘t want to tolerate it, then (society) will bring it to a trickle just like with that movie Gangs of New York."

Armed groups of neighbourhood vigilantes aren‘t the answer either, he added.

To combat gang activity, LAPD uses gang impact teams in the city‘s 18 divisions. Lieut. Paul Vernon, of LAPD Central gang impact team, said the groups are comprised of uniformed officers, narcotics officers and detectives.

The group ranges from six to 30 officers "depending upon the division and the problems."

"We pick one gang," Vernon said. "The most serious gang. We try to focus on that gang and target it and try to eliminate it or reduce its influence in the community."

++++

Rally calls for war on gangs
Anger in wake of shootings
By JASON TCHIR, TORONTO SUN

A rally for peace in a Scarborough church yesterday turned into a fiery declaration of war against gun-toting street thugs. "Let‘s lift our heads in the streets and take them back," Pastor Orrim Meikle told the standing-room-only crowd at a Malvern Presbyterian church yesterday.

"If they‘re going to shoot somebody, they‘d better shoot us," he said.

People of all faiths who are tired of the bloodshed should show their presence in the malls, the schoolyards and the basketball courts, Meikle said.

"We talk too much about heaven and do nothing on earth," he said to the crowd , which sang and chanted along with the speakers.

The rally, attended by more than 150 people, is the first in a series of church rallies, marches and walkabouts planned for the next two months.

Despite the church surroundings, people were angry about what was happening in their community.

The message -- that ordinary people must mobilize to stop the cycle of violence that led to a spate of murders last week -- was repeated by all who spoke.

PLEA TO OTTAWA

But there was also a call for tougher sentencing for crimes involving guns.

Councillor Raymond Cho, who represents the area, said he would support any increases to the police budget and called for the federal government to chip in cash.

"What‘s happening is terrorism," Cho said. "The military gets helicopters. Toronto Police should have two helicopters to track down these killers."

Julia Farquharson, 54, showed a photo of her son Segun in his coffin. He was 24 when he was murdered in 2001, his pleas for his life captured on cellphone voicemail.

"My son, this is what a gun did to him," Farquharson said. "This is a human being. There are plenty more young men in coffins just like this one."

Mercelina Peter -- whose son Simeon, 19, was gunned down on Jan. 8 -- said the rally gave her some hope.

"People have to realize that this doesn‘t just happen to other people," she said. "My son was never, ever in trouble and so he thought he‘d be safe."
++++++++

TTC vet rockets to rescue
Beating victim could have been my wife, says driver
By MARK BONOKOSKI

It‘s a Friday, one in the afternoon. Wendy Walkinshaw is on her way to meet her aunt at Main and Danforth so that the two can take in a matinee screening of the flick Big Fish, a movie where life is defined by fiction. She is inside the Spadina subway station, approaching the escalator when a man appears, unquestionably high on something. His eyes are glazed; his nose is running.

And suddenly Walkinshaw, a 30-year-old clerk at a downtown dental clinic, a person who touted Toronto as one of the safest cities in the world, a young woman who revelled in the downtown life, found herself being cast in a movie of her own. And it wasn‘t fiction.

"Scared in the city" would be its title. Because that‘s what Wendy Walkinshaw is today. She finds herself being scared in a city in which she has never been scared before.

"I have now learned that crowded areas and the light of day had given me a false sense of security," she says.

"I now feel uncomfortable passing someone who is standing still. And I haven‘t yet been able to take the subway again.

"I have been force-fed a strong dose of reality," she says. "And it is choking me."

There was no one around when the man first spit in her face, and then began cursing at her. There was no one around while he followed her down the escalator, and therefore no one to hear her telling him to leave her alone as he smashed her body against the escalator railing.

But at the bottom of the escalator -- as the man punched her in the face, and then punched her in the stomach, as he threw her onto the floor and began kicking her, as she screamed for help -- a couple in their 40s got on the escalator just a metre or so away.

They did nothing. They said nothing.

"I‘ll never forget the man‘s face staring down at me," says Walkinshaw. "He had absolutely no expression.

"It was as if what was happening to me wasn‘t happening. And he was no more than two feet from my attacker, riding up the escalator and looking down at me."

On the day Walkinshaw was attacked, some 30 commuters were standing no more than a few metres away. But they, too, did nothing.

"They just stood there and watched," she says. "It seemed like an eternity before my attacker suddenly took off. And I remember yelling at those spectators -- because that‘s all they were ... just spectators -- and asking them, ‘Are you people real? Could you not get help?‘

"All these faces had this pained look of pity. I suddenly felt absolutely alone in the world."

She then turns to the man at the magazine kiosk, and asks him -- pleads to him -- to call 911. He‘s frozen like the others.

Then a TTC employee appeared from around the corner and asked her if she was okay. And it was only then that some of the "spectators" pointed to the stairs of the eastbound platform.

"He went that way," they said, almost in unison.

Walkinshaw is trying to find out the name of that "brave TTC employee" who tackled her attacker and restrained him until TTC security and the cops could arrive.

"Even if I can only send him a card to thank him for what he did," she says. "He took a risk, that‘s for sure.

"I learned later, at the police station, that the man who attacked me had done this sort of thing before, and that he had a history of violent acts."

Consider Walkinshaw‘s search over.

Dave Padmore, a 16-year veteran of the TTC, says he "didn‘t think twice" about stepping into the fray and, as he put it, coming to the rescue of "a damsel in distress."

A slice of pizza and cup of tea in hand, Padmore was about to start his shift when he heard a scream.

"It almost sounded like a kid‘s scream, but you hear that all the time in the subway," he says. "And most times it‘s nothing. And then I saw the woman at the bottom of the escalator, and she looked to be in shock."

The fact that Walkinshaw was attacked by a stranger is what spurred the 38-year-old Padmore into action.

"If it had been her husband, or her boyfriend, then at least the police would be able to identify him," says Padmore. "But a stranger is something else.

"First, that could have been my wife or my mother who he was attacking, and secondly, who knows what he was going to do next? He had to be stopped."

Padmore says a witness helped point out Walkinshaw‘s attacker as he ran toward the eastbound platform and the exit which lay beyond.

"I simply grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and threw him to the ground," says Padmore. "We wrestled around a bit until the station janitor arrived and sat on his legs.

"Then security arrived, and it was over.

"I only did what had to be done."

 

[Jungle]

Good job Mr Padmore. The rest of the spectators should be ashamed !!!
Now regarding this comment:

"My son, this is what a gun did to him," Farquharson said.

Guns don‘t kill people, people kill people.

 

[Slim]

Good post Mark! Really good.

This city is not nearly as safe as it once was and something does need to be done.

In missions across the pond Int and other relevant military services usually liase with local police and they work out effective strategies to combat this type of "negative commerce" (drugs,guns ect).

Shame we can‘t do it here without the war measures act( or whatever they now call it).

Just a thought.

 

[The_Falcon]

Wow I did not expect the response to my late ramblings and ventings, to be so large but keep it up, This is something that should conern many people.