PUBLICATION:              National Post

DATE:                         2004.03.15

EDITION:                    National

SECTION:                  Editorials

PAGE:                         A15

SOURCE:                   National Post

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Misfiring on crime

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We know that most Canadians don't care about goings-on in Toronto half as much as Torontonians might think. But there's no denying that, as Canada's biggest city, T.O. sets the country's agenda on most urban policy issues. That's why it's important for all Canadians to understand the folly of the city's new crime-control strategy.

In response to Toronto's recent explosion of murders, drug-related shootings and home invasions, Mayor David Miller has unveiled a plan that would attack what he believes to be the "root causes" of crime. Rather than putting more police officers on the streets and cracking down on crime across the board -- two approaches with proven track records in U.S. cities -- the Mayor favours more drop-in basketball courts in high-crime neighbourhoods, make-work jobs for crime-susceptible youth, community safety co-ordinators and posters discouraging gang membership. Hiring quotas are also apparently part of his vision: At a luncheon last Tuesday, Mr. Miller asked suburban business leaders to designate a share of job openings "for those youth from at-risk communities."

Mr. Miller's proposed solutions might be palatable among Toronto's mostly liberal voters. But they won't work: Variations on Mr. Miller's proposed strategy have been tried in many American cities, and they have produced little in the way of crime reduction. In many cases, they have actually made the situation worse by effectively rewarding pathological behaviour with increased government outlays.

Why is Mr. Miller ignoring the best available criminological evidence? A clue comes from the fact that he is focusing only on those causes that dovetail with his liberal hobby horses -- poverty, racism, homelessness and unemployment. But what about those stemming from a breakdown in traditional values -- fatherless homes, for instance?

An unpleasant fact Toronto politicians typically ignore is that a hugely disproportionate percentage of the city's violent criminals (not to mention their victims) are black -- immigrants from Jamaica, in particular. And as a Statistics Canada study released this week revealed, "a much higher proportion of black children age zero to 14 live with only one parent." According to the study, Blacks in Canada, the rate for black children is 46%, versus just 18% for non-blacks.

Since we also know from Statscan and elsewhere that children from father-absent homes are three to six times more likely to drop out of school, take drugs, commit juvenile crimes and be unemployed -- all good predictors of later criminal behaviour -- why is Mr. Miller not campaigning to promote family cohesion and discourage child-rearing out of wedlock in Toronto's crime-ridden black neighbourhoods? Oh, right -- because that would be politically incorrect.

Mr. Miller would much rather stay on safer ground -- even if it means ignoring the real problem. Thus did he promise on Tuesday to order city police to conduct security checks of all shooting ranges and gun stores. He wants to ensure their vaults and storage cabinets are adequate to "stem the flow of firearms on to city streets." But, of course, legitimate gunsmiths and sport shooters have little to do with Toronto's crime. As Mr. Miller's own police chief, Julian Fantino, can tell him, most of the guns recovered at crime scenes in the city are smuggled into Canada; very, very few are stolen from lawful businesses or legal owners. Besides, Ottawa has already maintained stringent "safe storage" laws for more than a decade. Sending patrolmen to harass law-abiding hunters will do nothing to prevent a career criminal from acquiring the tools of his trade.

Mr. Miller's desire to tackle Toronto's crime problem may be genuine, but his approach is doomed to fail. You can't fight crime while wearing the twin blindfolds of utopian liberalism and political correctness.