Toronto endured another violent weekend as three slayings — one shooting and two stabbings — pushed the city’s homicide toll to 63 for the year. That’s just three fewer than there were all of last year and nearly twice as many as this time last year. The Yonge St. van attack in April accounted for 10 of this year’s homicides, but shooting and stabbing deaths are both on the rise compared to recent years, putting the city on pace for its most homicides since 2007, when 86 people were killed. Crime is poised to be a key issue in the upcoming municipal election, but experts caution against simply comparing statistics from one year to another without taking a broader look at longer-term trends. Overall crime in the city has declined in the last decade, but the recent spike has drawn considerable attention and comparisons to 2005’s “Summer of the Gun.”That year there were 53 shooting deaths and 80 homicides overall. Since then, the number of fatal shootings has trended downwards, reaching a low of 22 in 2013 before spiking in 2016 and 2017, when there were 41 and 39 shooting deaths, respectively. There have been 32 so far this year.Read more:Doug Ford has promised to ‘fix’ Ontario’s new policing laws. What could that look like? Premier Doug Ford opposes ban on handgun sales in TorontoToronto voters have public safety, gun crime on their minds, poll saysBut while the number of fatal shootings is up this year, the number of shootings in total is about the same as last year and lower than it was at this time in 2016. Still, politicians have been looking for ways to address the problem, primarily by investing in police.“These thing often happen in spikes,” Mayor John Tory said while campaigning at a South Asian Autism Walk on Sunday morning. Tory said he is working with all levels of government “at maximum speed” to reduce gun violence and provide resources to police “so that ...
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