Perception of rising gun crime in Peel shaped by police narrative that fuels Conservative agenda—data tell a different story

In 2012, Peel Police removed 729 illegal guns from the streets of Brampton and Mississauga. Last year, they seized 220. 

Yet, speaking to the CBC, in a story under a headline that declared Peel Police seized a “record number of illegal guns” in 2024, Chief Nishan Duraiappah claimed “we are seizing more firearms than we ever have.”

The chief, who routinely tells elected officials, the media and the public that “people’s perceptions are their reality”, has often used his powerful position to shape that reality with misleading narratives that ignore his force’s own crime statistics to further his own agenda.

Over the last year, while the chief was making misleading claims to the media about “record breaking” gun seizures, he was simultaneously engaging in a PR campaign to justify a record shattering budget increase that saw the force rake in $144 million more in taxpayer funds than the year prior, a 23.3 percent hike described by experts as “reckless” and “dangerous”. Combined with the 14 percent budget hike he convinced the police board and Peel’s regional councillors to support the year before, about $200 million was added to the Peel Police budget in two years, more than the combined increases over the previous decade, before the chief was hired.

Parts of Brampton and Mississauga have certainly suffered the impacts of violent crime that left families shattered and local communities traumatized, as certain forms of violent crime have increased in the region, including home invasions, car jackings, assaults and intimate partner violence. Gun violence has also caused harm to communities across two of Canada’s fastest growing cities, with an understanding that officials at all levels of government need to remain committed to fighting these devastating crimes. 

Chief Duraiappah—and Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre throughout the 2025 federal election campaign—have repeatedly drawn attention to gun crime, but the picture they paint is misleading, and critics say exploiting voters and taxpayers for political and professional gain needs to be called out.

The number of illegal firearms seized by Peel Police has been consistently declining over much of the last 15 years.

Last year marked a 209 percent decrease in the number of illegal firearms seized when compared to the 680 taken off the streets in 2015 and a 231 percent drop from the 729 in 2012. The number has been on a consistent downward trend for years: 459 in 2018; 436 in 2019; 380 in 2021; and 143 in 2023. In those years when an increased number was recorded, including 2018 and 2020, they were followed by subsequent years of decline. 

While much of this data is available through Peel Police annual reports, the record-keeping is inconsistent, with several changes to how the data is displayed and recorded, making it difficult for the media and members of the public to easily track.  

(Peel Regional Police Data)

There has also been no significant spike in the number of shooting victims over the last five years. There were 53 in 2018 and 50 last year. The most recorded in that time span was 58 shooting victims in 2022.

Key indicators of crime also show Peel is much safer than other large cities in Canada. 

Just four months before Chief Duraiappah spoke to the CBC about the so-called record “surge” in illegal firearms (a claim shown to be false by the force’s own annual data), Peel Police put out a press release declaring that Peel “continues to be one of the safest communities in Canada”. 

The Statistics Canada data used in that press release show Peel’s violent Crime Severity Index (CSI) was well below national and provincial levels, and had decreased 3.4 percent since 2022 due to fewer homicides; the non-violent CSI is substantially below the Canadian average for cities with a population over 1 million; and Peel’s Peel’s total crime rate per capita of 3,164 per 100,000 was well below the rate for Canada, 5,843, and Ontario, 4,454. Peel’s was the lowest compared to other jurisdictions.

Duraiappah, a close friend of Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, who sits on the police board and pushed for the chief to be hired in 2019, has adopted the same PR strategy Brown uses, blasting out press releases and engaging media to help shape narratives that further their interests. 

Just weeks after the police chief circulated news that Peel was “one of the safest communities in Canada”, he quickly pivoted before going to the police board and regional council for his $144 million (23.3 percent) increase, claiming waves of violent crime, including gun crime were ravaging the region. 

When Duraiappah’s budget for 2025 was being dealt with at regional council in the fall, delegates who expressed frustration over the unprecedented demand read from a letter that was also sent to The Pointer. The authors described themselves as concerned veteran Peel Police officers working for the force, and raised questions about Duraiappah’s leadership, irresponsible spending on lavish international trips, vehicles for personal use and a number of other wide-ranging problems alleged in the anonymously written communication.

Council members questioned why the chief had failed to include details of how the extra $144 million would be spent, with line item details breaking down how each dollar would be allocated. 

Brown, the former Ontario PC leader, countered, using a common Conservative talking point to paint the budget’s opponents as soft on crime. “Are we prepared to have more Priority 1, 911 calls that don’t go responded?” he said.

His claim was blatantly false. According to data from Peel Police, the average Priority 1 call—those that require immediate action—results in an officer on site within less than 15 minutes. Peel police has never said a single priority 1 call has gone unanswered, despite Brown’s claim that this is common, which would trigger an immediate investigation by the force and the board.

Eventually, Brown’s Brampton council members who serve at the regional level led the voting that approved Duraiappah’s budget.

Toronto’s former police board chair, Alok Mukherjee, called it an “utter failure of governance.” He described Duraiappah’s budget increase as “reckless” and unnecessary, warning it would have “implications for police budget increases beyond Peel.” 

“I was absolutely flabbergasted,” he told The Pointer.

The chief’s use of crime figures that contradict his force’s own data, was a tactic to shape public perception and sway local politicians who have to think about getting reelected.

The Chief has continued to push the narrative that Brampton and Mississauga are experiencing dangerous crime waves. 

During the recent Ontario election he came under fire after appearing on stage at a campaign-style event with Brown, Doug Ford and other PC officials, taking the mic to praise the politicians standing next to him. Despite clear rules in the province’s policing Act that prevent police officials from campaigning for candidates or showing any partisan behaviour, when he went on stage at the event, Duraiappah said, “I have never seen a government in my thirty years of policing other than Premier Ford that has put public safety first and our people first.” 

This type of blatant politicking has come in the absence of upstream solutions by the chief to prevent violent crimes before they happen. Residents and advocates in some of the communities most severely impacted by crime, such as Mississauga’s Malton neighbourhood, have for years asked for local policing stations and a redirection of funding to social services that have been proven to reduce crime. Instead, the lion’s share of the approximately $400 million extra added to the police budget under Duraiappah since he became chief in 2019 (the police budget has gone from about $500 million to $900 million in six years) has been for additional labour costs, including large salary and benefit increases. None have been as large as those he has enjoyed. 

In 2013, the first full year that former Peel Police chief Jennifer Evans served as the force’s top officer, she earned $228,000. Last year Duraiappah earned $480,000. He has enjoyed salary increases that average well above double digits since he became chief. This is considerably higher than the Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw, who heads the largest municipal police force in the country which is more than twice the size of Peel’s department, and earned $394,229 last year. Thomas Carrique, the Commissioner of the OPP, earned $365,187 last year.  

The politicization of criminal violence has been a common theme on the federal election campaign trail. The “tough on crime” agenda has been pushed by Poilievre and the Conservatives. 

He has claimed the Liberals “unleashed a wave of violent crime” in the country that has created “chaos in our streets”. 

The data tells a different story, particularly for violent crime.

But Poilievre has repeatedly referred to a supposed 50 percent increase in violent crime in Canada. 

This is blatantly misleading. Statistics Canada data shows violent crime incidents increased 48.9 percent between 2013 and 2023, but that figure has an asterisk attached to it. As Statistics Canada notes, over the last 10 years, that figure has been “expanded” to capture a number of violations previously accounted for in different categories, including uttering threats, criminal harassment and forcible confinement. Poilievre has failed to mention that societal changes, like the MeToo movement, led to increased reporting of particular types of crime, like sexual assault (which increased 75 percent over the same period). The figure also reflects the increased capability of investigating new types of crime, such as online child sexual exploitation. Statistics Canada noted the rise in reported child pornography cases was the largest contributor to the overall Crime Severity Index last year, mainly a result of “increased public awareness about the topic and partnerships related to combatting and investigating child sexual exploitation and abuse on the Internet.”

Like Duraiappah’s use of police data, the facts have not stopped Poilievre from pushing a criminal justice agenda described by critics as American-style fear-mongering. Meanwhile, solutions shown to prevent crime have not been mentioned while Conservatives vow to throw even more money at police departments. 

The narrative shaped by politicians and police leaders is effective.

"Yes, it's affected my sense of safety, for sure. It's not just this neighbourhood. It's all across Peel," Kavitha, a Brampton resident, told The Pointer (she did not want to use her last name). "Because you just open the paper and you hear about carjackings and home invasions, right? It's not just this area; it's everywhere. I know neighbours are traumatized, for sure, but I just feel like it's so sad that this seems like the new normal, and it never used to be."

Mike Dwyer spoke to The Pointer in January during a town hall organized by residents in north Brampton. The meeting was held following shootings in the area that had created widespread concern among residents. One incident was a case of mistaken identity in which a young man was shot and left paralyzed.

"People are putting their houses up for sale…they love the neighbourhood, but they're scared to live there," Dwyer said. "We have to do something about this."

The weakening local media landscape is a significant contributor to misleading narratives. The CBC article which falsely declared a “record number” of firearms had been seized, illustrated the loss of local media reporting resources. Police press releases are often reproduced on news platforms verbatim in an effort to provide some semblance of “local news” coverage for readers. This repurposing is often done with little original reporting or fact checking, allowing police-driven narratives to shape the “public perception” Duraiappah claims is the reality for Peel’s residents. 

Speaking to residents during the January town hall, Deputy Chief Marc Andrews told them that the 220 illegal guns seized by Peel Police in 2024 equated to one every 36 hours. 

What he did not say is this is a significant drop in the number of illegal guns seized compared to previous years. Peel Police officials at the community townhall on crime did not mention that the number of illegal firearms seized annually in Peel has been decreasing for much of the last decade. 

 A recent townhall meeting hosted by the North Brampton Neighbours community group drew elected officials who were grilled about crime.

(Muhammad Hamza/The Pointer)

Deputy Chief Andrews told residents a large portion of the illegal firearms coming into Peel are arriving from the United States. Residents The Pointer spoke with repeated the talking points used by Peel Police senior officers who spoke at the start of the community meeting. 

Kavitha criticized the federal government for not taking timely and concrete measures to secure the borders.

"I think our borders have been pretty porous," she said. "And the only reason we're tightening up our borders now is because Mr. Trump has asked us to do that. But I feel we should have done that a long time ago."

Following shootings in her neighbourhood, Kavitha told The Pointer residents were living in fear.

"We've had lots of people in our neighbourhoods being terrorized. We also have a drug dealer, close to our neighbourhood, and his house has been shot at multiple times. Our neighbourhood is living in fear, like absolute fear.” 

It was clear at the meeting that those residents in attendance were shaken by the violent crime that had occurred in their north-Brampton neighbourhood.

The Pointer reached out to local federal candidates in Brampton about plans to address illegal firearms including those coming from the U.S. Only the Liberals responded.

Tahiya Bakht, a Liberal spokesperson, told The Pointer Mark Carney will hire more police officers and train more Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers.

To stop the flow of guns from the U.S. border, Carney and his Liberal team are proposing to:

• Recruit 1,000 more RCMP personnel to tackle issues related to the border. 
• Train 1000 new Canadian Border Services Agency officers to crack down on guns;
• Add new border scanners, drones, and K-9 teams to target suspicious shipments at our borders, ports, and railyards; and
• Increase funding to the Public Prosecution Services of Canada to prosecute more organized crime offences.

"Mark Carney understands that to prevent gun violence in our communities, we must ensure law enforcement has the laws and tools they need," Bakht wrote.

He will “implement an efficient gun-buyback program for assault-style firearms; automatically revoke gun licenses for individuals convicted of violent offences; create a new system so the RCMP classifies new firearm models entering the market; increase funding to better track down guns used in crimes; and toughen oversight of firearms licensing and yellow and red flag requirements.”

On April 10, while talking to supporters at a rally in Hamilton, Carney proposed stricter measures to halt illegal guns and drugs flowing from the U.S..

“Canadians deserve to feel safe where they live, play, work, and worship,” he said. “We will disrupt and dismantle criminal networks, bolster the justice system, and build a stronger and safer Canada for everyone.”

In an interview with The Pointer last week, Shafqat Ali, former MP for Brampton Centre, and the Liberal candidate in the new Brampton–Chinguacousy Park riding, said the federal government provided $121 million to Ontario in early 2024 to fight violent crime, calling it a “shared responsibility” of all levels of government.

He said Brampton has been “stigmatized” by negative headlines but said the $121 million provided to Ontario needs to help fight “guns and gangs". Ali criticized the provincial government for not prioritizing the funding where it is most needed. He said Ontario needs to hire more criminal prosecutors in places such as Brampton.

Shafqat Ali, the Liberal candidate in Brampton–Chinguacousy Park, blames the provincial government for not hiring more criminal prosecutors despite funding from Ottawa.

(Muhammad Hamza/The Pointer)

"We brought $28 million to CBSA. We gave a mobile scanner to help catch or control auto theft,” Ali said, expressing concern that criminals are not being effectively prosecuted. “It's a provincial jurisdiction that they have to hire more judges and more prosecutors. They have to increase the capacity in correctional facilities, so this is our shared responsibility, but I am always there to stand up and to fight."

Pierre Poilievre opposed the Liberal’s 2023 firearm legislation, Bill C-21, which includes the codification of a “National Handgun Freeze” and prohibits the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns, increases penalties for firearms smuggling and trafficking, and includes stricter enforcement for those owing illegal guns. The legislation faced backlash from Conservatives and legal gun owners and gun rights advocates.

Poilievre posted on social media early in the year that “I voted against these laws, I will repeal these laws.” 

The NDP and Jagmeet Singh have pledged to rehire and train 1,100 CBSA officers to address criminal activity at the border.

"The NDP will fight for 1,100 new border officers to be urgently hired and trained to replace the jobs Conservatives cut,” Singh said. “If the Liberals continue to let people down, an NDP government will rehire those 1,100 border officers immediately and keep hiring and keep training—so we can catch more guns at the border and travelling by rail, rather than after they’ve been used in a crime.”

The Pointer's 2025 federal election coverage is partly supported by the Covering Canada: Election 2025 Fund. 

Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

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