Mr. Speaker, I spent 39 years of my life fighting gun violence in the city of Toronto, and one of the things I learned is that cops count. However, today, there are 700 fewer police officers in Toronto than when I was the chief. Those are the same police officers who fought guns and gangs, who gave evidence at bail hearings and who kept neighbourhoods safe.
Just like Stephen Harper, who cut a thousand RCMP jobs, successive Conservative mayors and premiers have frozen police budgets and police hiring. That is the price that we all pay for reckless Conservative cuts. If the Conservatives are looking for causation of the increase in violence, they should look in the mirror.