MORE GROW-OPS IN TORONTO THAN U.S.

MPP: Ministers Back Chief's Demand For Crackdown On Guns

Ontario Cabinet ministers who back calls for harsher gun-crime penalties
say Toronto is home to as many marijuana grow operations as all of the
United States and claim that criminals in the city now rent guns for
weekend jobs "like they are videos from a video store."

Attorney-General Michael Bryant's comments on gun rentals and Community
Safety Minister Monte Kwinter's observations about grow-ops were prompted
by Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino's latest demands for a mandatory
10-year sentence for crimes committed with a gun.

Chief Fantino's comments at a Monday news conference followed the deaths of
two people in five weekend gun-related incidents in the city.

In an interview yesterday, he confirmed criminals are "renting guns for
jobs and for the weekend and if they don't get them back on time, there is
retribution, too.

"The collection of penalties," he added, "is more severe than a late return
on a DVD."

Chief Fantino wouldn't comment on the going rental rate: "Suffice it to say
that guns are being passed around amongst criminals for different jobs."

He also acknowledged there is an "epidemic" of grow-ops in the Greater
Toronto Area.

"People don't like me talking about stiffer sentences," he told the
National Post yesterday. "But in actual fact, so many of the people we deal
with have been given but a kiss by the system and I would say that the
majority of them are all career criminals."

Chief Fantino said a move in the United States to channel more gun-related
crimes through the federal system has resulted in a 32% decline in these
crimes in recent years.

But Anthony Doob, a University of Toronto criminologist, said there is a
"huge" amount of literature from the United States that shows tougher
penalties don't affect crime rates.

Mr. Doob said politicians and police chiefs nonetheless embrace the notion
of tougher penalties because it suggests they have it within their power to
"legislate away crime. But you just don't get rid of crime that simply."

Ontario Liberals have nonetheless jumped on the sentencing bandwagon. Mr.
Kwinter said proceeds from Toronto's pot grow-ops are "used as currency by
the criminal element to buy guns and drugs from the United States and bring
them back to Canada."

"We have as many grow-ops in metro Toronto as the United States," he argued
yesterday, as he also called for harsher sentences for grow-op owners.

Neither Mr. Kwinter nor Chief Fantino provided any statistics to back up
their claims regarding Toronto grow-ops.

Mr. Bryant said provincial justice ministers have been demanding changes to
the Criminal Code to eliminate conditional sentences (house arrest rather
than jail time) as an option for offenders convicted of serious crimes.

"I think that Parliament is going to have to take a very serious look at
what Chief Fantino is proposing," he added.

"We not only have to deal with the people who are using the guns for
violent crimes, but we need to go after those who rent out guns on the
weekends like they are videos from a video store ... It's one of the
reasons that we have devoted 12 new specialized gun Crowns to deal with
issues like this."