COPS VOW TO CLEAN UP PIMPS, PUSHERS

Peace and safety will be restored to an East Toronto neighbourhood where
pimps, prostitutes and drug-dealers have taken root, Police Services Board
boss Norm Gardner vowed during the weekend.

"Playhouses for children's daycare programs are being used for prostitution,
liquor and drug sales, and residents are being intimidated at knifepoint,"
Gardner said.

He promised extra patrols in the area.

Gardner met with residents in the Danforth-Coxwell Aves. area who are fed up
with teens hanging out in the schoolyards of Earl Beatty and St. Brigid's
schools.

Two teens were stabbed to death in the area last summer.

Armed with a 522-name petition, residents met with Gardner, 54 Division cops
and councillor Sandra Bussin.

Staff-Insp. Bill Fordham vowed that "peace will be restored to your
neighbourhood."

"We're fed up with what these youths have done to our neighbourhood and it's
really important the community and police deter them now," Harsuta Vyas, 38,
said.

Lisa Winters, the supervisor of Beatty Buddy's Daycare, said she finds used
syringes, condoms and beer bottles inside the small playhouses at the
daycare every morning.

"We want this eliminated now. It affects the safety of our children," Judy
Greenfield, principal of Earl Beatty public school, said.

Copyright (c) 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership.

Checked-by: Don Beck