Thank you.
In 2008, as I said, the “Review of the Roots of Youth Violence” report was released after the 2005 “year of the gun” issue we had in the city of Toronto.
Outlined in that report are various recommendations that were put out by the provincial government to tackle [Technical difficulty—Editor] youth engage in the violence. Poverty is one of the number one issues, and the rest filter down in terms of systemic racism, the education system and the lack of housing. Anyone who's been to Toronto or Vancouver knows that the cost of living in our cities is unbelievable. You can't survive in the city unless you're an upper-income person.
It's not surprising that we have the level of violence that we have when we continue to see the financial gaps grow and people just trying to survive. The trauma that is left in these communities.... Some people who I support have lost more than one family member or friend— multiple people. They never have a chance to even attempt to heal before another one is taken.
We hardly have any services that cater to community violence, which is one of the reasons I started my organization. Trying to find myself and my children continuous supports was horrible. It was absolutely horrible trying to navigate, and I work in social services. It's very difficult to find resources that are culturally specific and that people have the ability to connect with to deal with the trauma they've been exposed to.
You have children who are growing up through all of this trauma, and it's becoming somewhat normal to them to the point where.... What would we expect them to do, living in this environment?