For the most part we don’t have nearly as much gun violence in our city as our neighbours to the south and it’s easy for us to be smug about the bizarre American fetish for firearms. This morning though, I was taking the dogs out to Jack Darling Park and heard on the radio there were 4 shootings in Toronto overnight – 1 dead 4 injured. There have now been 6 homicides in Toronto this year.

Last week there was a shoot-out on the Allen Road – people were shooting at one another from moving vehicles. Crazy.

When I was growing up in Etobicoke – now on the western edge of the amalgamated Toronto, hearing about a shooting was a rare event. I recall when I was in high school there was a gangland-type shooting at a local gas station, which was a huge shock. I’m sure there were a number of other incidents, but few I recall. I was always proud that Toronto was such a safe place to live.

One of the shootings last night occurred around Bathurst and Niagara – just down the street from the old warehouse building where for years I had a live-in studio.

It seems gun incidents are here to stay, and we’re no longer “Toronto the Good.”