Street festivals are a staple of Toronto summers. But a deadly shooting over the weekend has led to questions about how safe they are — and what can be done to prevent future tragedies.
Roughly 13,000 people were at Salsa on St. Clair festival Saturday night when gunfire erupted in the crowd. Witnesses described panic and chaos in the street as festival-goers fled the scene where two people were killed and several others were injured.
In the aftermath, several business owners and people living in the neighbourhood said they wanted to see more security at future festivals.
One business owner, who sheltered people in her butcher shop, said she wasn’t sure her business would participate in the festival anymore, or whether it should happen at all.
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“This moment kind of just crushed it for us,” said Angela Mazza, owner of Macelleria Atlas. She said people were drinking more than in past festivals, and that she didn’t feel as safe this year.
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The owner of a bakery on St. Clair Avenue, Tomer Markovitz, said he and other business owners closed shop early Saturday over concerns there would be trouble, saying they’ve been urging the city and festival officials to beef up security.
He suggested ending the festival earlier in the day and requiring festival-goers to enter through metal detectors. He also said he hoped the festival would take place in another location next year, “somewhere else that they can contain it.”
But one expert who studies disaster and emergency preparedness says while the city and police should be looking for any possible improvements to security, open-air festivals cannot be made perfectly safe, and the focus should be on dealing with the root causes of gun violence.
“The point is, the location is not the cause of the violence. Period,” said Jack Rozdilsky, an associate professor of disaster and emergency management at York University. “A simple venue change for public mass festivals is not going to address the gun violence problem.”
While metal detectors and bag checks are effective measures at indoor events, Rozdilsky said they don’t work as well at street festivals, which have several entrance and exit points in the forms of businesses, residential buildings, other roads and alleyways.
Street festivals, with an open-air environment, are known as “soft targets” for criminal activity, Rozdilsky said. That’s where the top priority is the celebration at the festival itself, not air-tight security.
“Basically, we try the best we can to make things as safe as we can,” he told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Monday, noting there was lots of visible security at Saturday’s festival. “The [amount] of adaptations to make a perfectly safe environment would change the entire street.”
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Mayor Olivia Chow addressed gun violence in the city specifically in a video statement Monday, saying the city “will not let reckless criminals stop Toronto’s tradition of outdoor street festivals.”
Chow noted the festival incident was just one of three shootings across the city over the weekend. One person was killed in a targeted North York shooting Friday and several were injured early Sunday morning in a shooting near Rebel Nightclub on the city’s waterfront.
Chow said she had spoken with Canada’s Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree and urged him to speak with American leaders “to stem the flow of illegal guns into our streets.”
So far this year, 49 people have been injured or killed by firearms, with a total of 130 shootings and firearm discharges recorded, according to Toronto police statistics.
Saturday’s fatal shooting wasn’t the first time safety issues became a concern at a Toronto street festival.
There had already been complaints about security levels and overcrowding at the Do West Fest in June, ultimately causing it to be cut short after organizers said they didn’t get the extra police resources they had requested.
Security questions are being considered in real time, as the city has several other street festivals planned this summer.
The Taste of Danforth is returning this summer after a two-year hiatus, and GreekTown BIA chair Tony Pethakas said in a statement Monday they are working closely with the city, private security and Toronto police on a comprehensive safety plan.
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Coun. Josh Matlow said the city has worked to improve security against vehicular attacks after last year’s Lapu-Lapu Day attack in Vancouver, and they will also take lessons from Saturday’s shooting.
The city is considering changing the festival’s location and hours to improve safety, he said, adding he’s been speaking with festival organizers, business owners and residents about their concerns for future festivals. But there are no easy answers, he said.
“We do need to reflect on what can be done to both ensure that we have safe public gatherings, but also allow for public gatherings,” Matlow said. “[We] need to ensure that we can still be a free society and still be able to celebrate together and gather and celebrate.”
The day after the Salsa on St. Clair shooting, Little India’s Festival of South Asia went on as planned. Nathaniel Joseph, a performer at the festival, said his wife had concerns but he felt safe with police patrolling.
“The show must go on,” he said
