I've always been so proud of Canada's "safe place to live" reputation, especially Toronto and Mississauga, and especially the lack of shootings - but suddenly, since being back for almost 3 months, there are shootings practically every night! Here in Brampton, last night, a shooting only a few streets away in a park - one teen dead, one bleeding in a driveway. What is going on!?

progress.

Copy cat, fear and street cred all rolled into one.

Not a lot of purpose for some, the media build up the dream lifestyles and then expect everyone to be happy cleaning the place and working in the repetitive jobs. to many kids want the quick dream and if mummy and daddy aren't going to give it to them then they are going to take it.

And its alright because its not there fault its society's for creating the false expectation.

The Blue line is getting thinner and thinner and the do goodies are deliberately under minding the strength and respect.

My our gods help us all.

Funny how they ban the act of drinking and smoking from T.V but not killing and violence.

Its all in the stats...

Crime is lower in Canada (by about 20%) and you really are safer form being involved in a violent crime in Canada than in the UK...

But! and this is the bit that doesn't show up in the stats.... when you are involved it much more likely to be life threatening.


It’s what comes of living so close to our southern neighbour and the wholesale adoption its culture by our media…

And if I'm not mistaken, the crime trends show that Canada is becoming a safer place to live in (see below) ? I figure as people are transient and are migrating there, they are (generally) taking their ambitions for a better, safer life with them and transferring that to deliver a better lifestyle....but like said before those that dabble pay higher risks ? I wonder if the problem lies mainly with a certain demographic (certainly true in some areas, without mention) and settlement profile, because I'm convinced it's not the older generation or the most recent immigrant classes....hmmm.....that would make an interesting study, stats must be out there somewhere, would make interesting reading for sure. I bet you could almost pick out and predict who are the 'bad guys' likely to be 'at it'.

BC crime stats link below, at least BC seems to be getting safer ??? Not sure about the federal scenario ? Other than Eastside Vancouver, we don't have any real concerns about crime in Canada or where we're planning to be heading. Being informed is the important thing, and having realistic expectations.

http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/police_ser...ions/index.htm

Rich.

No offence but this one is not really about the stats on the internet, and what you perceive from outside of the country, this is more about what you find in the local papers and local news when you get here...

as I said above the stats show one thing...the reality is another.

You may well figure that as people are migrating here that it is better… many of our immigrants are coming from places such as Eastern Europe India, Asia and Africa they‘re coming from a third world background and your statement is more than accurate… but coming from Europe it not ‘better’ its just ‘different’ and some of that difference is the type of crime you encounter…
Our life style is much more American than it is European and as a result we have a crime style to match

Personally I couldn't give a hoot about the rate of gun crime here. It's all confined to gang members and is invariably black-on-black, a sad fact.

The horrendous rate of 'low-level' violence in Britain used to worry me far more. I reckon you're at least a hundred times more likely to be assaulted or mugged in Leeds or London than Toronto.
I'm not a wimp by any means, but I used to feel very unsafe quite often walking around parts of Leeds. In fact I was actually terrified on one occasion walking through Salford late at night. :scared:
I never feel even remotely unsafe in Canada.

The recent stats (whatever you read into them) has the top 3 most violent western countries as the USA, UK and Australia. Now - I would have thought Aus to have been a quiet country as I know many people from there who have never once mentioned the place as being violent. In all concentrations of people there will be those who feed off of those looking for drugs, prostitution, shop protectionism etc. Nice human nature types. Guns can be bought in any country in the world. There are simply so many governements producing them for profit. Once these guns/weapons become old they enter the private world of gangs and gang warfare.

A recent issue in London (UK) has been that the outer towns of this city have become the testing/intitiation arena for new wannabe gang members. They drive around towns without lights on the vehicle. The first occupants of other cars that flash or become aggresive with the gang car gets the treatment. This involves a chase followed by a blast from a weapon into the vehicle at whatever the new boy can get an aim at.

In the US the main gang lords seem to be filtering into the smaller cities as the police are getting very heavy with these guys. This is making small town comfort living a hell hole in many parts of the US.

Perhaps when governments see the revenue drop out of weapons the number of such items just might reduce. Mmmmmm.....I don't think so somehow!

In short if you are worried try and stay away from large groups of humans.

Mike,

No worries, no offence taken at all, I like to think that I'm pretty well informed via online news and networking, about the reality of certain types of crime and the 'reality' of certain areas. I didn't mean to imply that Europe>to>Canada was 'better', I kinda meant that those planning emigrate from Europe tend to have financial and other 'value' based reasons for doing it - i.e. we all have ambitions for a 'better' life and therefore we translate that to acting out a better lifestyle, in many ways, I guess because we respect what is around us more so ? Helping others....contributing more...volunteering....social values....etc etc. Hope this makes sense ?

ps anyone thinking Canada is Nirvana should read certain newspapers where there is more than an abundance of stories of crack/meth/heroin abuse (amongst adults and teens), prostitution, criminal gangs, social issues, etc. I thought the most bizarre one recently was the Vancouver Courier story about the problem of homeless people crapping in the streets. Nirvana, huh ? Certainly opened our eyes when we first started researching, but you see beyond that grungy headline. Even so, seeing at first hand the ravages of drugs and psychological problems on some poor homeless guy in Vancouver was pretty disturbing (walking down Howe St shoeless and in a sack cloth in freezing January, looking like Jesus and shouting and ranting was pretty interesting viewing, and I'm not disrespecting those with mental issues here, 'cos this guy clearly needed serious help, and the lack of help in itself could make a up whole other string of posts). And for anyone who's not been approached by panhandlers, to experience it in a shopping mall (Metrotown, Vancouver) discreetly is a real shocker.

After those experiences, I always try to advocate the 'open eyed' approach to Canada !

Rich

Its inevitable, really and its bound to happen at some point or another, unfortunately.
Just wondering: where in Brampton exactly? I am from there (born and raised) and my family (mom, dad, kids) still lives there, in old downtown area near Frederick and Elliott.
Thanks, Fluffy

Rich,

Are you saying those coming from India, Pakistan, Africa, south east asia, and south east asia, come here for reason other than making a better life for themselves, and improving their education?

A lot of people that come from these third world countries, are really well educated, some more than the europeans you mentioned. Surely you are not saying every european that emigrates brings a lot of money with them, or don't rely on the state to provide them help when needed?

Crime comes in all shapes and forms. Yes you have your gang related shootings in Toronto and other cities, but you have your white collard crimes too carried out by even politicians. Also there is the child abusers, abducters, sexual abusers, murderers. For some reasons when you turn on the TV, these people are hardly black, they are as white as they come.

Now the biggest mistake you can ever make, is ignore all this, and just think because someone looks like you, they can't or won't harm you or your kids. Just the other day, at our daughter's swimming class, I had to object to a lady filming with video camera, because I don't know who she is, or who she is married to or has as a boyfriend.

Crimes by minorities seem to get all the headlines, and when a big crime happens in a small town or surburbia, you get people saying "that person didn't look like the sort of person" that will do that. This is it, no one does, we just like to brush certain people as the ones that could be criminals, or dangerous.

All these surveys on the net don't count for nothing, because you continuosly have crime happening everyday in the major cities, and the surroundings. Brampton was mentioned there, there always seems to be something happening there every week on the news. You have your black, indian, chinese gangs, all fighting turf wars.

Shootings seems to be occuring more frequently in the UK but they tend to be in 'dodgy/gang areas'. Best thing is to stay away and use your common-sense like not walking through an unlit park at night by yourself.

The man shot on the steps of our office was Asian. So was the man killed in Scarborough by a random bullet through his house window. The only person around here who I know routinely carries a hand gun is a white man from Scotland. There certainly are black gangsters but "invariably black-on-black" is simply not a fact.

You are right here dbd33....I think it's just a myth that all the shootings are carried out by black gangs, because of this, most people leave themselves wide open for other gangs of other colours to take advantage of. A perfect example is what you just said there, and I couldn't agree with you more.

The police too seem to fall for this myth, and at times in gets in the way of their judgement. The key message here, is not to trust anyone, even if it's someone that doesn't look like what you might count as being trouble.

Too true. I think people often forget that there are now women gangs who are equally ruthless. I also think that people think that gangs stay in their dodgy areas, but when they want money they are going to head into the nice areas for rich picking, and if they are drugged up, they will also be unpredictable.

This particular shooting took place a few nights ago in "New Brampton" ie Dixie and Bovaird. I like the area your family lives in, we looked at houses on Joseph St and English St recently.

As for staying out of unlit parks at night, these stray bullets went through people's back gardens, through a child's backyard play area. How do you avoid that, stop your child from sitting on their own swingset on a nice warm summer evening?! That's a terrible thought.

And what about the little girl shot on a TTC bus a few months ago, she wasn't in a "dodgy area" or part of a gang, she was riding home on a bus.

I always felt safe in Toronto/Mississauga but I think it's getting a bit too much for the police forces to handle.