By now, you can write these stories in your sleep. Young thugs with guns start shooting at each other. Bullets spray. Innocent bystanders bleed and die. Anguished soul-searching breaks out all over. How could a harmless street party turn into a bloodbath? Clearly, we need action to address the root causes.<\/p>\n
In fact, despite the carnage that broke out Monday night, Toronto is in the minor leagues of homicide. Detroit, a much smaller city, has chalked up 184 so far this year. Chicago has had 277. The two young people killed at Monday\u2019s house party in Toronto \u201d\u201c Shyanne Charles, 14, and Joshua Yasay, 23 \u201d\u201c were victims 27 and 28.<\/p>\n
But make no mistake: In certain neighbourhoods, a war is on….The single most significant root cause is not guns or crummy housing or racism or inadequate policing or lenient sentencing or lack of jobs or insufficient social programs. It is family and community breakdown. Most especially, it\u2019s absent fathers.<\/p>\n