Federal candidates snub invitation to public safety townhall after Malton mass shooting

People are worried. A devastating mass shooting on Saturday in Malton that left a 17-year-old bystander dead and a 13-year-old girl among the five wounded has further eroded what appears to be a crumbling sense of safety in public spaces in Mississauga and Brampton. 

A local advocacy group called the Concerned Residents of Brampton (CRB) held a townhall meeting the day afterward to help residents get an idea of what is being done to boost public safety as well as solve the affordable housing issue. Organizer Sukhwinder Dhillon told The Pointer that federal candidates, whose parties have been weighing in on the shooting, were invited, but none attended.

Jotvinder Sodhi, who sent the group’s invitation to all five of Brampton’s incumbents (four Liberals and one independent), called them “double-faced” and was generally displeased with their failure to show up. “They did not respond. Maybe they have other priorities over the public’s safety,” Sodhi said.

“These events (like the townhall) should have been initiated by our politicians, municipal, provincial or federal … They must be answerable to the public, especially in the election time,” Sodhi said.

The federal party leaders did comment on Saturday’s shooting in Malton. Peel police said the “brazen” evening attack by at least seven shooters who unloaded more than 100 bullets, some of them using semi-automatic handguns, targeted a group planning to film a music video in a public parkette behind a large apartment complex.

“We know there’s more to do, and we will be doing more,” said Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. Conservative rival Andrew Scheer blamed gang activity and called for “better laws to deal with things like bail conditions that known gang members receive” on a campaign stop in Surrey, B.C.. Campaigning in Quebec, the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh repeated his party’s willingness to let municipalities ban handguns if they wish to do so in an effort to prevent such incidents.

The day after the CRB townhall, another multiple shooting occurred. This time on Highway 410, in Brampton, in an incident that involved two moving vehicles. It happened around 2 a.m. Monday, and police found two victims at the scene, one of them dead. The stretch of highway near Bovaird Drive remained closed as of 4 p.m. Monday and police were still investigating. The Special Investigations Unit was also present at the scene. 

Statistics suggest that public safety is indeed deteriorating in the area. Homicides rose 166 percent between 2014 and the end of 2018, reported sexual violations of children rose by 332 percent in the same time period, and assaults, level 1 and 2, rose by 24 and 29 percent. 

A poll commissioned by The Pointer, conducted by Forum Research, in the leadup to last fall’s municipal election found that public safety and property taxes were, by far, the top two concerns for Brampton residents. About 65 percent of respondents in the poll, following several months that featured some particularly violent crimes, said they felt less safe than they had four years earlier. This could explain why the townhall was so well attended by residents, despite the absence of federal politicians. 

Navdeep Bains, whose Mississauga–Malton riding includes the apartment complex where the shooting took place, tweeted, “My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and families impacted by yesterday’s shooting in #Malton. I’m determined to keep working hard to make our #Mississauga community a safer place for everyone.”

That appears to be all he said publicly about the shooting. He later attended a community event in Malton, with no further comment.

Municipal politicians have been more vocal. Wards 7 and 8 Councillor Charmaine Williams was present at the townhall meeting, and she has made public safety one of her major talking points on council. She spearheaded a gun-buyback program that was later amended to an amnesty program without reimbursement to people who turned in unwanted guns. 

Councillor Charmaine Williams, next to Councillors Paul Vicente and Harkirat Singh

She agrees local public safety issues should be election priorities for the national parties and their local candidates. She also wants more funding for mental health services, which may sometimes be a factor in reducing violence. 

“Making community safety (is) almost as big as #FairDealForBrampton,” Williams told The Pointer. #FairDealForBrampton is an advocacy and petitioning effort the city hopes will spur the provincial government into action regarding the hallway healthcare crisis in Brampton. Williams believes that public safety and the healthcare issue are interconnected: “We also have to realize, [better mental health care] is going to help push the other community safety issue.”

A 2017 study by Public Safety Canada lends credence to Williams’ focus. It suggests youth who join gangs show a significantly higher rate of mental disorders than those who aren’t in gangs. Youth in gangs are 57 times more likely to exhibit antisocial personality disorder, four times as likely to exhibit psychosis, twice as likely to suffer anxiety disorders, six times more likely to experience alcohol dependence and 13 times more likely to be addicted to drugs. Depression and anxiety disorder are prevalent. 

Councillor Gurpreet Dhillion, who was also present at the townhall, agrees that public safety should be an election issue, but he prefers a more tough-on-crime approach. “All the police officers we speak to say, ‘Listen, we catch them and put them in jail, but they’re out the next day.' We need to get tough on crime. If you do the crime, you do the time.” 

Councillor Gurpreet Dhillon

Late last month, Bill Blair, the minister of border security and organized crime reduction, announced a $54-million fund, in collaboration with provincial counterparts, to be devoted to combating gang violence in Ontario. An “intensive firearms bail team” was also announced for Peel Region, where Crown attorneys specializing in the field will help guide judges toward informed decisions about which people charged with firearms-related crimes should be allowed bail, and under what conditions.

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