Mr. Speaker, I spent 39 years fighting crime in the city of Toronto. One of the things I learned in that 39 years is that cops count.
Today there are 700 fewer police officers in the city of Toronto than when I was the police chief. Those are the same cops, by the way, who fought guns and gangs, gave evidence at bail hearings and kept our neighbourhoods safe. Just like the Harper government that cut 1,000 RCMP positions, Conservative mayors and premiers have frozen police hiring. This is the price we are all paying for reckless Conservative cuts. If the Conservatives are looking for causation of the rising crime, they should look in the mirror.