Community health event proposes solutions to gun violence

From left: Louis March, Marc Rainford, Tevon Fray and Sarah Grant

By Lincoln DePradine

Many suggestions, including the idea of suing United States manufacturers, were offered when PEACH – Promoting Education and Community Health – organized an event to discuss “zero gun violence’’.

“We don’t need no more gun violence; we don’t need it,’’ said Tevon Fray, who was a panelist on the gun violence discussion at Eddystone Avenue in west-end Toronto. He’s with YAAACE – Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education – a community organization in the Jane and Finch corridor assisting children and youth.

Tom Rakocevic, MPP for Humber River-Black Creek, commended Tiffany Ford,the executive director of Promoting Education and Community Health, saying PEACH has become a “fixture of our community’’ and “a warm, safe, clean, exciting space’’.

Rakocevic labelled gun violence “an absolute scourge’’, saying he’s co-sponsoring a bill that will be debated in the Ontario legislature and if passed, it would allow action to be taken against gun manufacturers in the United States.

Louis March

“Seventy percent of the guns that are on the streets comes from the States. And, while people’s families are being torn apart, people are dying, there are people making a lot of money selling these tools that allow for these killings to happen,’’ he said. “More needs to be done.’’

Panelist Marc Rainford, a former Toronto police officer who now works with YAAACE, said he was “committed to working with anybody’’ on finding a solution to gun violence. He cautioned of the danger of people “turning a blind eye’’ to crime.

Community Social Work Sarah Grant, said the “myth and stigma’’ around mental health should be debunked, and therapy should be provided to children, who may need it, at an early age.

“A lot of our youth are dealing with mental illness at a young age. The younger that we get children in therapy, the better it will be for them as adults,’’ she said.

“We have to start when children are young, and we have to acknowledge also thatin order to build a healthy brain, we have to be mindful of the environment that children are in; not just the outside environment but also in the home; not just physically safe, but emotionally safe as well.’’

The panel discussion, moderated by award-winning author Kamelah Blair, also included longtime leader of the Zero Gun Violence Movement, Louis March.

“We’re getting better at certain things but other things, we’re not getting better,’’March argued, in discussing the society’s overall efforts at curbing gun violence.

“We have underestimated the influence of social media on gun violence; we’ve underestimated it totally,’’ said March.

March said a society with zero gun violence is possible to achieve. “We already have zero gun violence in our city. We have it in certain communities for certain people,’’ he said.

“We’ve got the template, we’ve got the history, we’ve got the knowledge. My challenge is how do we work with people that are willing to close the gap, or do we accept what we see as the status quo and we don’t do anything about it.’’

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter