the shootings in Toronto are obviously the fault of the United States.
“It’s a sign that the lack of gun laws in the U.S. is allowing guns to flood across the border that are literally being used to kill people in the streets of Toronto,” (Toronto Mayor - ed) Miller said.There is, however, a recognition that other factors are at play:
“There are neighborhoods in Toronto where young people face barriers of poverty, discrimination and don’t have real hope and opportunity. The kind of programs that we once took for granted in Canada that would reach out to young people have systematically disappeared over the past decade and I think that gun violence is a symptom of a much bigger problem,” Miller said.
Of course the root problem is that Canada can no longer afford to pay for all of the giveaway programs she once could - a trend that will continue unless the folly of Kyoto is abandoned.
Finally, way down at the bottom of the article, is a suggestion that Canada has a different kind of “g” problem:
John Thompson, a security analyst with the Toronto-based Mackenzie Institute, says the number of guns smuggled from the United States is a problem, but that Canada has a gang problem — not a gun problem — and that Canada should stop pointing the finger at the United States. “It’s a cop out. It’s an easy way of looking at one symptom rather than addressing a whole disease,” Thompson said.
And copping out is exactly what politicians do best. So, if Paul Martin wins re-election on the 23rd, I don’t expect him to address any of the findings of the Gomery commission. But I do expect him to start trying to confiscate people’s handguns. And that may be when I have to call for an emergency extraction - and I won’t even be a full time resident yet.
