Election 2019: Candidates target violence after latest Surrey shooting
Credit to Author: Matt Robinson| Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:08:18 +0000
Just days after the Liberal Party of Canada issued a campaign promise to ban assault rifles and strengthen handgun laws, Surrey logged its 12th homicide of the year, a shooting death in a busy shopping area at Fraser Highway and 188th Street on Saturday night.
The murder reminded residents about serious crime, shootings and violence in their city just ahead of an all-candidates debate in the Cloverdale-Langley City riding where the shooting occurred. Those candidates, and others across the region, will be asked in the coming weeks about what has gone wrong, and what can be done differently.
After the shooting, Rae Banwarie, the NDP candidate for Cloverdale-Langley City and a 20-year veteran of the RCMP, began posting comments on social media about the shooting and calling for more funding for police. In an interview, Banwarie said he believes public safety remains a huge issue for Surrey voters.
“At the end of the day, it’s great to have all of these good things (that the parties are) promising, but if you’re not safe in your home and where you live, and there’s violence that happens and you lose a loved one, what does it matter? It doesn’t matter.”
For him, the solution to the problem is “more boots on the ground.”
One person is dead after being gunned down inside a Mercedes parked at a Surrey gas station on Saturday evening.
John Aldag, the Liberal running for re-election in the riding, said he would like to see a strong investment into border and port security with an aim to catch guns crossing the border illegally.
Randeep Sarai, the Liberal in Surrey Centre, defended his party’s record over the past term and pointed to recent funding commitments, including $327.6 million to help reduce gun violence, as proof that his party was taking the issue seriously.
Sarai pointed to recent statistics that show incidents of gun violence are on the decline and suggested the situation may be improving.
“It’s never enough. Nobody wants anybody shot or killed or to be a victim, but the trajectory, I would say, is in the right direction,” he said.
Surrey RCMP Cpl. Elenore Sturko referenced the same numbers and said police in that city have made headway.
There were 38 shooting incidents in Surrey last year and there have been a similar number so far this year, she said. In 2017, there were 59, in 2016 there were 61, and in 2015 there was a high of 88 incidents of gun violence.
“Look at Winnipeg, look at Toronto. Look at some of our other major cities that are also dealing with violent crime, and Surrey actually is … I don’t want to say we’re great, because obviously we have our challenges and anywhere that people are not feeling safe we want to be able to work on those concerns … But we have to also look around at what’s happening across the country and realize that some of the things we’re doing are effective and we are making some headway in many different areas,” she said.
Surrey’s overall crime has trended downward since 2014, and its violent crime severity index has done the same over the past 10 years, according to Surrey RCMP.
But homicides have steadily crept upward since the city logged eight in 2015. There were 11 in 2016, 12 in 2017, and 15 last year. Sturko noted those deaths are not limited to shootings.
Ken Hardie, Member of Parliament for Fleetwood—Port Kells
Ken Hardie, the Liberal running for re-election in Fleetwood-Port Kells, said it will take time for some of his party’s investments to start to counter the violence people are seeing. For example, Surrey’s Anti-Gang Family Empowerment program, to which his government gave $7.5 million, “is just now finding its feet.”
Although gun violence is down, Hardie said he believed recent shooters have tended to be younger and more reckless than in the past.
“And of course, when you have gunplay happening on city streets in daylight, you know, that’s highly risky for innocent bystanders, not to mention whoever is the target of the activity. It may not be large in number, but the ripple effect through the community is really substantial,” he said.
“The real solutions start at the kitchen table with the families, which is why we think that the SAFE program is the best chance we’ve had so far at really making a difference here.”
For Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum, who is working on a different electoral timeline, Saturday’s shooting offered fresh evidence that a municipal police force is needed in his city. He said efforts to transition to a Surrey police department were mired in “bureaucratic red tape” and called the lack of progress disappointing.
“The situation appears to be getting worse with each incident, as the gangs are so embolden that they don’t think twice about opening fire in daylight, in public areas or near schools,” he said in a Monday morning news release.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Toronto on Monday to speak with health-care professionals about what he promised a re-elected Liberal government would do about guns. That city has seen more than 340 shootings this year.
The proposed measures include a ban on semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15, which was used in many recent mass shootings in the U.S., a buy-back program for legally purchased assault rifles, and working with provinces and territories to allow cities to further restrict or ban handguns.
Surrey has seen a slew of brazen killings since the last federal election. In 2017, a man crashed into the Golden Arches of a local McDonald’s after being shot dead, and in a separate incident that year, a well-known gangster was shot in the parking lot of a Comfort Inn. Last year, a family man was shot in his driveway in a case of mistaken identity, and there have been other shootings near schools, on the streets, and even in a Starbucks drive-thu.
— with research from Carolyn Soltau and files from Canadian Press