PUBLICATION:        The Toronto Sun 

DATE:                         2004.01.28

EDITION:                    Final 

SECTION:                  News 

PAGE:                         4 

ILLUSTRATION:     photo of JULIAN FANTINO Talks to Sun 

BYLINE:                     IAN ROBERTSON, TORONTO SUN 

TYPE :                        Exclusive 

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IT'S US VS. GUNS FANTINO REVEALS PLANS FOR COMMUNITY SUMMIT

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Community leaders are being brought together for an unprecedented counterattack on guns and gangs, Chief Julian Fantino told The Sun yesterday in an exclusive interview.

The chief said a cross-section of Toronto residents will participate in a think-tank planned for March to discuss crime-related issues that go beyond traditional policing needs. Topics will include the erosion of family values, poverty, schooling, youth attitudes, addictions, complacency, intimidation of witnesses and justice system issues.

All society must play a role and not wait for governments to pay for everything, Fantino said. "This is not going to be along the lines of waiting for the Brink's truck arriving from Ottawa."

Fantino plans to reveal further details soon.

Cops will continue to put pressure on criminals, "but we can't go it alone," he said. "We're not getting a whole lot of help from other quarters ... and there's an element in society that are spending far too much time criticizing the police.

But in addition to programs that offer "tough love," Fantino said "there has to be some significant deterrents in place."

Since the Guns and Gangs Task Force began conducting compliance checks on residents freed on bail after being charged in a gun-related crime, "almost 50% were breaching their conditions," he said. During such "house calls" over the last four months, 119 of the 239 accused criminals checked were re-arrested for failing to live up to pre-trial release orders.

"What does that tell you? They are not intimidated or deterred by the consequences of their actions," Fantino said.

Toronto Police statistics show that "84% of the people we arrest for gun-related offences are all career criminals," he said.

Toronto cops last year also responded to a total of 3,285 "gun calls" placed by residents who reported seeing someone with a firearm, hearing gunshots or someone indicating they had a gun. In 2002, there were 2,998 gun calls.

Fantino said he got a "good reception" in recent conversations with federal and provincial lawmakers. In addition to pressing for anyone arrested on a gun-related crime to be denied bail, Fantino wants mandatory 10-year prison terms for convicted gunmen instead of "graduated scales." Denying bail would avoid "the revolving door" that leaves witnesses in fear after thugs are quickly freed, Fantino said. "Let's put the fear back into criminals and not into citizens, as the gunmen have been doing," he said.

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NEWS RELEASE - October 16, 2003

STATS CAN HOMICIDE REPORT SHOWS RIGHT AND WRONG TARGET FOR SAVING LIVES

“The number of people murdered went up so their billion-dollar gun registry didn’t save any lives.”

http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/guns95.htm