ACTUAL REPORT

The Review on the Roots of Violence:
Findings, Exec Summary, Community Perspectives, Literature Review etc.
http://www.rootsofyouthviolence.on.ca/english/reports.asp

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Racism ‘alive and well,’ youth crime report finds

Updated: Fri Nov. 14 2008 1:33:26 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

A new report on youth aggression in Ontario says that the province needs to address racism in the education and police systems to stem future violence.

“We were taken aback by the extent to which racism is alive and well and wreaking its deeply harmful effects on Ontarians and on the very fabric of this province,” wrote the authors in a report entitled “Roots of Youth Violence.”

“This racism affects all racialized groups in Ontario … in particular Blacks (continue to) suffer from a seemingly more entrenched and often more virulent form of racism.”

The review of youth violence was chaired by Justice Roy McMurtry and former Ontario House Speaker Alvin Curling. It was commissioned after Jordan Manners was shot dead inside his Toronto high school in 2007. Earlier this week, a 16-year-old was stabbed at the same school, C.W. Jeffreys Collegiate Institute.

The report also focused on other issues the authors said the province must address to help children avoid violence, including an emphasis on providing easier access to and better mental health services.

The authors said the province needs to invest about $200 million to provide universal mental health services, noting that the money should be spent even as the government runs into deficit budgets.

“Our report is a road map to government and others who must join us on this journey. Now is the time to take the first steps,” said McMurtry at a press conference Friday.

The authors also noted the irony of the criminal justice system.

“Paradoxically, a young person’s ‘last chance for rehabilitation’ is often the criminal justice system, which is ill-equipped to deal with the youth’s mental health problems,” said the report.

Toronto Mayor David Miller added that society must ensure that entire groups of young people feel don’t feel excluded.

“You put a gun in the hands of somebody who is angry, who feels alienated, who feels discriminated against, and that is impulsive, you’re creating an incredible risk for society,” Miller said.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he will consider the report’s recommendations “very carefully” and will look at it as a blueprint for an action plan.

“We can’t just write off groups of kids just because they are troubled and troublesome,” he said.

He also called on parents to become more engaged in their children’s lives.

The report also calls for:

* Ontario to press the federal government to impose a handgun ban
* expand availability of public space and facilities for recreation activities
* improve parenting skills and “community-based” support system for parents
* keep crime statistics based on race

Miller has said in the past that he is not in favour of tracking crime statistics, but noted he would listen to suggestions. McGuinty said the issue has been controversial but may need to be revisited.

He said no one should take an “ideological approach” to race based data because it may provide important information about how best to target programs to help young people.

Meanwhile, the province’s Tories said the report doesn’t provide any quick fixes. Tory MPP Julia Munro told The Canadian Press that at least one of the recommendations — which calls for streamlining government departments to ensure better public access — should have already been implemented by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

She said she wonders why it has not already addressed some of the concerns in the report.

With a report by CTV Toronto’s Austin Delaney