ABSENT FATHERS ROOT OF GUN CRIMES, FAITH LEADERS SAY

Young male adolescents who have no male role model at home 'look to
gangs for family'

Young, angry adolescents who have no male role model at home are
committing many of the gun crimes in Toronto because gangs are their
family, faith leaders said today.

And fathers who desert the home are the root of the problem, the
leaders said at a news conference held at the Driftwood Community
Centre in the gang-plagued Jane-Finch corridor.

Rob Brodie, who works on trying to rehabilitate criminals following
their sentences, said that of 20 case files he recently pulled at
random, 14 of the criminals were from single-mother homes.

Along with a call for politicians to toughen drug laws, the faith
leaders pointed to a breakdown in the family home as the leading edge
of the downward spiral.

Building on the momentum of Boston preacher Eugene Rivers, who's been
in Toronto to introduce his own strategies for crime fighting, the
faith leaders sent out a call for everyone - politicians, police,
faith leaders, mothers, fathers and educators - to do their part.

Bruce Smith, a former Toronto Argonaut football player who is now an
outreach worker and chaplain, speaks from experience.

"I grew up without a father," Smith said. "I ran with gangs and packed
a gun when I grew up in Texas."

When he was 18, he became "fascinated" with guns and drugs as "a way
to have money to buy nice things. I was the person who sold drugs.
Young people equate drugs with power and an easy way to make money."

At the University of Colorado, he and some friends mimicked the
characters in the movie The Wild Bunch by wearing long overcoats and
packing weapons as they terrorized people on the street.

Later, he said, "I became remorseful" for his way of life and knew
that "if I didn't change, I'd end up dead."

That's the message he's trying to communicate to young people he talks
to.

Football gave him a sense of family, something that many kids don't
get at home, the faith leader said.

Dr. Charles McVety, of the Evangelical Association and Canada
Christian College, echoed the call for lawmakers to roll back the
clock to a time when parental punishment could be used as discipline.

"I'm not talking about abuse," McVety said. "But there has been an
erosion of parental rights and a social drift that's been coming for
years."

Children who know the law, he said, are practising a form of civil
disobedience in the home and getting away with it.

Single mothers, who are working two and three part-time jobs, are
either not at home or frequently can't control their sons.

One mother who turned her son in this month when she found an AK-47
rifle in his bed should be saluted, the faith leaders agreed.

Others must find the strength to come forward and the police have to
help create the environment where mothers can feel confident in coming
to them, the leaders said.

Smith, the former Argo, said he is "very optimistic" that the tide
will eventually turn, and he said he is encouraged by what Boston's
Eugene Rivers started.

"We got the dialogue going and that's great," he said.

With the federal election coming on Jan. 23, the leaders said they
hoped the new government would keep drug possession illegal.

"Stop the soft talk on drugs," McVety urged. "Young people are joining
gangs for the lure of drug money. It is dangerous talk."

Prime Minister Paul Martin wants to reduce penalties for simple
possession.

But that's going down the wrong road, McVety said, and the party
leaders should make their intentions known before people go to the
polls.

McVety said "it's sending the wrong message" to spend millions on
curbing tobacco use, but mapping out a strategy to make drugs more
permissible.

Smith, the former Argo, echoed that sentiment, saying that legalizing
drugs like marijuana will instil the idea in people that drugs are not
a problem.

"That girl who was killed on Boxing Day . . . drugs were the thing
that motivated those shooters. It's time for us as leaders to take an
active stand against things that are causing death in our city.

"We need to stand up in the community and say no to drugs."