Poverty is shredding Dixon youth to pieces.(Toronto shootings)

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Etobicoke community group calls for more support to combat gun violence

An Etobicoke community group is calling for more support to combat the ongoing gun violence in the Dixon Road area.

She called on Michael Coteau, Ontario's minister of Children and Youth Services, to come to the neighbourhood to see how few programs are available and to witness how the violence is impacting the community.

The rally comes on the heels of two deadly shootings in the area over the past week.




Abdulkadir Bihi, a 29-year-old Toronto man, was shot and killed in a vehicle parked outside a Dixon Road apartment building last Thursday. Days later, 16-year-old Zakariye Ali was shot and killed in the parking lot of Kingsview Village Junior School, located in the area of Dixon Road and Islington Avenue.

North Etobicoke Coun. Michael Ford, who represents the area, attended this morning’s demonstration and said he plans to convene a meeting to address the issues facing the neighbourhood.

“I am calling for a meeting with Toronto police, city officials to come together and to really improve the safety in this neighbourhood, not just for the immediate Somali community, but the community as a whole,” Ford said.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Mayor John Tory said violence in the city is “of deep concern” to him.

“I will also say that in discussions I’ve had with the police service, including the chief, there has been a reallocation of police resources to the northwest part of the city,” he said.

“I think this is the subject of constant re-examination of the deployment of police resources and that as we watch what’s going on in those communities, I certainly will be in close touch with the acting police chief about trying to make the city safer, that we keep that part of the city safer and that we try to reduce the number of these kinds of violent incidents that are happening.”
 
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'We bury a lot of youth': Somali-Canadian community cries out for action after 2 fatal shootings
2 fatal shootings in the Dixon Road, Islington Avenue area in less than a week sparks community response
By Makda Ghebreslassie, CBC News Posted: Oct 12, 2017 4:35 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 12, 2017 4:35 PM ET

Aya Nomar calls for justice following two fatal shootings in the Dixon Road and Islington Avenue area within a week. (Martin Trainor/CBC News)


makda-ghebreslassie.JPG


Makda Ghebreslassie
CBC Toronto reporter

Makda is a CBC Video-Journalist, who from time to time fills in as TV news anchor and a newsreader on Here and Now and Fresh Air. She worked in newsrooms in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Windsor before moving back home to Toronto.




After two separate fatal shootings in the the Dixon and Islington area within a week, frustrated members of the Somali- Canadian community in the neighbourhood came together Thursday to call for action to end the violence.

"We lose a lot of youth. We bury a lot of youth," said Aya Nomar, who spoke at the event.

During the news conference, community members called on police, government and the media to do more following last week's shootings.

Abdulkadir Bihi, 29, was shot in the middle of the day while sitting in his car on Oct. 5th.

The soon-to-be father was later pronounced dead in hospital.

Then on Sunday Oct. 8, police responded to a triple shooting.

A boy and two men with gunshot wounds were found in the parking lot of Kingsview Village Junior School.

16-year-old Zakariye Ali, of Toronto, died in hospital of his injuries.

Nomar is mourning the loss of the teenager whom she said was best friends with her son.

"I mean, all the Somali boys, they touch my heart but when you know the person and when they're part of you, it touches you," she said.

Police and politics
Farhia Warsame, executive director of the Somali Women's and Children's Support Network, told the news conference shared that she too has been personally touched by violence in the community.

farhia-warsame.jpg

Farhia Warsame said the Dixon Road and Islington Avenue area is an 'underserved' and 'marginalized' community. (Martin Trainor/CBC News )

"I am also a victim. My son passed away and shot in 2015," she said.

Warsame called for Children and Youth Services Minister Michael Coteau to visit the area, which she says is lacking in supports for youth.

"Mentoring programs, outreach programs, prevention programs, all of that is not happening in this area," she said.

At the news conference Thursday, Warsame also acted as a translator for others who have also loved ones to violence.

Abdelrahim Mohamed's son Khadr Mohamed was found dead from a gunshot wound in August 2017.

He questioned what police and the government are doing to control the flow of guns.

"What we cannot figure out is—how these teenage young children get the guns in their hands? he said through Warsame.

abdelrahim-mohamed.jpg

Abdelrahim Mohamed holds a a picture of his son Khadr Mohamed, 22, who was found dead in Little Italy with a gunshot wound to the chest in August. (Martin Trainor/CBC News)

Ward 2 Coun. Michael Ford attended the community meeting Thursday.

"It's heart wrenching," he said.

He is now calling for a meeting with police and city officials to improve safety in this neighbourhood.

"Gun violence just doesn't happen in North Etobicoke, it happens across the city and I think it's about us as city council, as a collective, to be addressing violence in our city," he said.

No more labels
Community members also addressed the stigma that the neighbourhood is facing in light of of the violence.

"We don't need labelling. We are tired of labelling. We just need justice," Warsame said.

On CBC Radio's Metro Morning, community leader Munira Abukar said she is also frustrated by how some people in other parts of the city are reacting to the shootings.

"I like to call it a colour assumption---based on the colour you are, there's an assumption that you in a sense deserve to die," she said.

michael-ford.jpg

Ward 2 Coun. Michael Ford said police, schools and the Somali-Canadian community need to work together to create grassroots change. (Martin Trainor/CBC News)

She says people are quick to assume that when shootings happen, the victims have somehting to do with their own deaths.

"No one wants to give you the benefit of the doubt and say, 'Maybe someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time.'"

Even in cases where the victim has had a criminal background, she said "assuming that young men deserve to die and not even have the chance to fix their lives is also something that doesn't sit well with me."

Abukar said she has come very close to being caught up in the violence.

Once, she and her siblings had to come to the aid of a man who was shot.

Another time she said shots rang out, just as she and her friend were supposed to be going out.

munira-abukar.jpg

After two fatal shootings in her community, Munira Abukar said a lot of people 'feel like it's only going to get worse.'

"I got outside and saw the damage that her car had been shot multiple times, including where I would have been sitting."

She and her loved ones escaped injury or death that time but Abukar wonders what would have happened if that hadn't been the case.

She questions, "what would have been our legacy? What would we have been labelled as?

She too is calling on local politicians to do more but in the meantime "you have to make the space safe for yourself," she said.

Hoping to come up with strategies to do that, Farhia Warsame is calling on the Somali-Canadian community to come together for a meeting on Saturday Oct. 14.
 

Jodeci

The Realest of All Time
I feel this is purely a Somali male issue and not a female one. Im not a target for bum ass gang niggas :camby: Why are Somali women fighting for gansgter men that don't even support us? FOH with that bullshit :camby::farmajoyaab:

If these hoyos want to make a real change, why don't they ask their children's fathers/uncles/cousins/ to raise and discipline their sons? Why do Somali men absolutely refuse to raise and discipline their own brothers/sons/nephews/cousins etc. Some would rather flee to Africa then raise their own sons into hardworking men :faysalwtf:

When little Abdi becomes 6'2 at 15 and too big for Hooyo to control, why do Somali men wait until the young boys get killed to realize something went wrong, then force women to be at the forefront of saving them? Nigga save yourself its 2017 :samwelcome::siilaanyosmile:
 
I feel this is purely a Somali male issue and not a female one. Im not a target for bum ass gang niggas :camby: Why are Somali women fighting for gansgter men that don't even support us? FOH with that bullshit :camby::farmajoyaab:

If these hoyos want to make a real change, why don't they ask their children's fathers/uncles/cousins/ to raise and discipline their sons? Why do Somali men absolutely refuse to raise and discipline their own brothers/sons/nephews/cousins etc. Some would rather flee to Africa then raise their own sons into hardworking men :faysalwtf:

When little Abdi becomes 6'2 at 15 and too big for Hooyo to control, why do Somali men wait until the young boys get killed to realize something went wrong, then force women to be at the forefront of saving them? Nigga save yourself its 2017 :samwelcome::siilaanyosmile:
They are killing women too. No one is left safe.
 
Their blaming police when they know nobody is willing to cooperate with police aka snitching and taking the stand :farmajoyaab:

The geeljire coomunity in Canada is trash and will keep becoming sewage waste, it will become worse and worse cuz nobody wants to address the real issues such as horrible parenting and naive kids that follow and live a lifestyle when they know the consequences aren't good.

"Free Da Guys!"

"Free Broski, DBC!"

"Free da block!"

Free da block my ass, keep those idiots locked up in the jail cells.
 

Mercury

Ha igu daalinee dantaada raac
VIP
I'm not suprised seems like Somalis are pointing fingers on others for this gun issue

"Police ain't doing their job"
:gucciwhat:

How they suppose to when no witnesses wanna come forward ?

"Where do they get guns"
:gucciwhat:
Maybe from their shitty friends they hang with

As long as the Somali community won't cooperate with cops and locals

As long as Fathers sit in coffeshops for hours instead of raising their kids this will continue and in turn the streets will raise them

Now it's sad that it's starting to drag in other innocent people who got nothing to do with this
 

Mercury

Ha igu daalinee dantaada raac
VIP
Their blaming police when they know nobody is willing to cooperate with police aka snitching and taking the stand :farmajoyaab:

The geeljire coomunity in Canada is trash and will keep becoming sewage waste, it will become worse and worse cuz nobody wants to address the real issues such as horrible parenting and naive kids that follow and live a lifestyle when they know the consequences aren't good.

"Free Da Guys!"

"Free Broski, DBC!"

"Free da block!"

Free da block my ass, keep those idiots locked up in the jail cells.

They should have father seminars in the Somali community and Father son activities

And even talk about how huge importance a father has on his son
 

Mercury

Ha igu daalinee dantaada raac
VIP
I feel this is purely a Somali male issue and not a female one. Im not a target for bum ass gang niggas :camby: Why are Somali women fighting for gansgter men that don't even support us? FOH with that bullshit :camby::farmajoyaab:

If these hoyos want to make a real change, why don't they ask their children's fathers/uncles/cousins/ to raise and discipline their sons? Why do Somali men absolutely refuse to raise and discipline their own brothers/sons/nephews/cousins etc. Some would rather flee to Africa then raise their own sons into hardworking men :faysalwtf:

When little Abdi becomes 6'2 at 15 and too big for Hooyo to control, why do Somali men wait until the young boys get killed to realize something went wrong, then force women to be at the forefront of saving them? Nigga save yourself its 2017 :samwelcome::siilaanyosmile:
They have failed as fathers the Somali community needs to name and shame absent fathers,
 

World

VIP
I feel this is purely a Somali male issue and not a female one. Im not a target for bum ass gang niggas :camby: Why are Somali women fighting for gansgter men that don't even support us? FOH with that bullshit :camby::farmajoyaab:

If these hoyos want to make a real change, why don't they ask their children's fathers/uncles/cousins/ to raise and discipline their sons? Why do Somali men absolutely refuse to raise and discipline their own brothers/sons/nephews/cousins etc. Some would rather flee to Africa then raise their own sons into hardworking men :faysalwtf:

When little Abdi becomes 6'2 at 15 and too big for Hooyo to control, why do Somali men wait until the young boys get killed to realize something went wrong, then force women to be at the forefront of saving them? Nigga save yourself its 2017 :samwelcome::siilaanyosmile:
I agree, you can’t just raise your children in a ghetto with no father figure and expect them to turn into good children. A man needs a man, not his hooyo to raise him. This generation of western Somali fathers are completely disconnected with their children(not me). The 3rd generation Somalis who won’t have PTSD refugee parents will turn out much better I think.
 
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