An alleged “swarming” attack in Toronto started when the eight teen girls charged in the slaying tried to take a liquor bottle from the victim and his friend, the friend says.
That witness, whom CBC Toronto has agreed not to name because they belong to a vulnerable community, said she was smoking a cigarette with the man outside a downtown shelter early Sunday when the group of teens approached them and attempted to take her alcohol.
The 59-year-old victim, who police have not publicly identified, told the girls to leave the two of them alone, the woman said.
“He protected me,” she said.
That’s when the group of girls started to punch him repeatedly, she recalled. Frightened by the violence, she walked away while one of the girls followed her. She said she could see lots of blood.
“Bleeding, bleeding, bleeding. I didn’t know if they had a knife or what. I was just scared,” she said. “I think they stabbed his belly.”
She said she went into the shelter and brought him water afterwards. “I didn’t know he would die,” she said.
In an interview on Wednesday, Toronto police Det.-Sgt. Terry Browne said investigators believe there was an attempted theft — “likely of a liquor bottle” — during the initial phase of the deadly encounter.
“I don’t want to expand on that because we don’t have all the moving parts right now. But we do believe that does form part of the narrative involved in this,” he said.
The attack happened at about 12:15 a.m. local time, near the corner of York Street and University Avenue, just steps from Union Station. The victim was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Browne, who has been a homicide detective for 19 years, called it a “shocking” killing and said it is unlike anything he’s investigated before.
“I can’t recall a situation where eight females have been involved in something like this.”
Teens charged with 2nd-degree murder
At a news conference on Tuesday, Browne said the victim was beaten and stabbed by the group, which included three 13- year-olds, three 14-year-olds and two 16-year-olds. All eight have been charged with second-degree murder. Their identities are protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Browne said police chose to charge all eight with second-degree murder because each girl “played a role” in the slaying.
“All eight were together. All eight were involved,” he said Wednesday. ” I won’t say what each one individually did, but all eight were together and participating in this event, which is disturbing.”
Police are operating under the assumption that the teens met on social media, Browne said, but it’s not yet clear how or why they ended up downtown late Saturday and into Sunday morning. They all live in different parts of the city, he said.
Police spoke with parents of teens charged with murder: ‘Everyone was shocked’
Toronto police Det.-Sgt. Terry Browne told CBC News Wednesday that police have spoken with the parents of eight teen girls charged in connection with the death of a 59-year-old man.
Three had had “prior contact” with police, he added. Investigators have no evidence that the victim was known to them, Browne said.
Police have spoken to the parents of each of the teens, he told CBC Toronto.
“As you can probably imagine, everyone was shocked. Probably like getting hit by a Mack truck.”
The fatal swarming was preceded by an earlier incident involving the girls that Browne only described as “criminal activity.” Police arrested all eight when they responded to a third incident shortly after the swarming and “pieced together the dots” that the group had been involved in all three.
All of the teens appeared in court on the weekend, with further court appearances scheduled for Dec. 29.
Browne said police wouldn’t describe the girls as a gang at this point, but investigators are calling the incident a “swarming,” which he said normally involves selecting a target to victimize. Swarming was more prevalent in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Browne said, and “primarily involved young adolescent males finding themselves in conflict.”
The deadly attack happened near the corner of York Street and University Avenue in Toronto. (CBC)
As of Wednesday morning, police were still trying to contact the victim’s elderly parents, he said. Once that has been done, his identity will be released publicly.
Browne said the man had only recently entered into the city’s shelter system and that he had supportive extended family in the area.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call him homeless, just recently on some hard luck,” Browne said.
Crime a ‘rare event,’ sociologist says
Jennifer Silcox, an assistant sociology professor at Western University in London, Ont., says while a crime of this nature can incite “moral panic,” which is widespread and often irrational fear, there’s no reason to believe this is part of a trending violence among young girls.
“Girls commit half the amount of crimes that boys have committed, and there’s just been a 20-year decline in youth crime,” said Silcox, who specializes in gender, youth crime and media.
Instead, she emphasized that this is a rare event.
“Girls are more often likely to be the victims of violent crime than they are likely to be perpetrators of violent crime,” Silcox said.
Youth cabinet calls for more support
The Toronto Youth Cabinet, the city’s official youth advisory body, said it was “disheartened” to hear about the attack.
“We must also recognize that violence against homeless and precariously housed individuals are on the rise and those who are the most vulnerable in our communities will be recipients of these violent acts,” a statement from cabinet executive director Stephen Mensah read.
“As a society we must not be comfortable and complacent with the rise in violence nor must we be for the deteriorating socioeconomic conditions our young people find themselves in.”
The group also called for more investments into youth services, employment and community support from all levels of government
Police appealing for information
The death was the 68th homicide in Toronto in 2022.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said in a statement that he is “deeply disturbed” by the details of the case.
“Everyone in our city deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. I am so saddened to know that a man has lost his life in this way,” he said.
“I am extremely troubled by the young age of those accused and by the number of people allegedly involved in this murder. My thoughts are with this man’s friends and all those who knew him as they mourn his loss.”
Police are appealing for information from anyone who was in the area of the attack between about 10:30 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 a.m. Sunday
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
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