Confronting Street Gangs in Canada
Canadian Gangs Shaped by Drugs and by Local Communities
Apr 9, 2009
In a 2006 Annual Report, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada estimated that 11,000 people under the age of 30 were members of street gangs across the country. This estimate did not include the numbers of hangers-on, prospects and wannabes loosely affiliated to the gangs.
The Report did point out that under-reporting from the aboriginal reserves and remote communities, as well as the closely-knit Asian communities, produced estimates lower than they probably were.
Big Picture Blurred by Local Diversity
The estimated national total of members in the gangs has little significance. The wide diversity and makeup of the individual street gangs is of more importance for understanding the changing face of crime groups. Some are exclusively ethnic, such as many Asian gangs on the West Coast. Others are multi-ethnic, as in Ottawa and Toronto. According to police reports, for example, membership in two of Ottawa’s largest street gangs draws from 57 different nationalities.
In the Prairies, some aboriginal street gangs recruit members from home reserves to the exclusion of others. In urban centers throughout the country, membership is geographically defined by location of social housing projects and other low income high density areas.
Drugs Drive Violence and Gang Growth
If a common thread exists in gangs throughout North America, it is likely drug trafficking. Street gang members are the foot soldiers of the industry. Certainly some gang members are involved in the sex trade, extortion, home invasions, weapons trafficking, car theft, and a variety of other criminal activities, but drug dealing provides the money and facilities for these.
As has historically been the case, with drugs comes competition, and on the streets that can translate into violence.
Gun violence among youth between 12 and 17 years old in Canada has jumped 32 percent since 2002. Since January, 2009, B.C.'s Lower Mainland, that is, Vancouver, and its neighboring communities, has witnessed nearly 50 shootings and 18 fatalities. Recently, a police sweep in Greater Toronto resulted in 125 arrests, including 46 street gang members. Among weapons seized during the raids were two loaded AK-47’s and 34 handguns. Along with them were cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, and $430,000 in cash.
High profile events -- a spate of violence or major police sweep -- stimulate high media attention. They also spur community calls for action, which bring out politicians. Everyone looks for a quick fix to end the problem, and it simply isn’t there. Indeed, most short-term solutions, notably imprisonment, not only won’t work, but in the long term will more likely aggravate the problem. This has been the case in the United States where prison budgets in many states now exceed those for education and health.
Community Commitment Essential
Michael Chettleburgh, a noted expert on Canadian street gangs, has repeatedly pointed out that the gangs are not a national problem, although as gangs organize, like the Hell’s Angels, they could become one. The Hell’s Angels have moved up the food chain -- they now supply Canadian street gangs with drugs and have become international in their activities.
Rather, says Chettleburgh, the gangs are a local community problem and to solve it or at least contain it requires the participation of a broad flexible array of community stakeholders.* The police cannot do it alone; certainly not when jails and prisons are already bursting at the seams and the courts are so backlogged that cases coming to trial sometimes take years.*
A few cities, like Ottawa and Edmonton, are moving toward a multi-pronged community approach to solutions. Whether they can stay the course for the long term remains to be seen. The quick fix of stiffer sentences and prison bars has a lot of charm for politicians who see it as a “motherhood” election plank with almost as much voter appeal as the promise of a chicken in every pot.
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