Black communities plagued by high number of homicides, low support for loved ones, data shows
U of T Homicide Tracker breaks down stats by area as well as available supports for survivors
Predominantly Black neighbourhoods in Toronto are disproportionately impacted by homicides but have the least amount of support services for survivors, according to new research from the University of Toronto.
The report comes from U of T's Centre for Research & Innovation for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims (The CRIB). The Homicide Tracker — believed to be the first of its kind — looks at killings from 2004 to 2020 by neighbourhood as well as support services available to families and friends who are affected.
"Toronto neighbourhoods with lower socioeconomic status, higher populations of young Black residents and housing instability — those social determinants of homicide — have experienced a steady increase in homicide over the past 10 years," said Tanya Lorraine Sharpe, the founder and director of The CRIB and an associate professor at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.
"Compared to downtown neighbourhoods, Black survivors in the northwest neighbourhoods have less access to grief and bereavement services."
The research comes on the heels of a violent start to 2022 in Toronto — six homicides in just over two weeks. Those behind the research hope the data will affirm what many community advocates have been saying for years: that there simply aren't enough supports for survivors of homicide in neighbourhoods where they're needed most, and more needs to be done to address the systemic roots of violence, including anti-Black racism.
Homicide tracker
The data, which took more than a year and a half to compile, found 75 per cent of Canadian homicide victims are racialized Ontarians, and 44 per cent identified as African, Caribbean or Black.
Sharpe said the tracker was launched because of an absence of race-based data on homicides as well as the impact those deaths have on family and community members.
"If you don't count the number of homicide victims and then consider the ripple effect and the disproportionate impact of homicide on Black communities, then we're all almost revictimizing them," said Sharpe.
The data suggests each homicide victim leaves behind between seven and 10 family members or close friends who are struggling. The researchers estimate that with the city's homicide rate over the past years, 3,850 people living in Toronto are affected and are struggling.
"So you begin to understand the chronic accumulation of Black death and understand the reality that Black survivors of homicide victims in Toronto are experiencing a pandemic of grief."
Accompanying the data is a report on the social determinants of homicide that looks at factors such as employment, income and education. Its findings show how anti-Black racism factors into structural inequities. For example, Black Torontonians are four times more likely to be charged with a crime, and one in five young Black men in Ontario have been incarcerated, compared to 1 in 70 white men.
Community reaction
For those who work with survivors of violence in Toronto, the findings aren't surprising.
"I've lived this since 2006," said Rev. Sky Starr, a therapist and community activist in Toronto's Jane-Finch neighbourhood who recently authored a book on the ripple effects of gun violence.
Starr has long advocated for better support and resources for survivors of gun-violence.
"You're looking at the youth, for instance, who have gone through a trauma and continue to be retraumatized … because the help hasn't been there for them to probe it, for them to explore it, for them to find a source of help that they need to rise from where they are," said Starr.
"Hopefully this might give somebody a different perspective on it," she said, referring to the U of T report.
Starr says she's been trying to draw attention to the lack of support for gun violence victims with city, provincial and federal officials for years.
"When people are far removed, they fail to see that somebody else is suffering. Because that level of compassion isn't there. And they can't link it," said Starr.
Sureya Ibrahim founded Mothers For Peace in Toronto's Regent Park community precisely because there weren't enough resources. The community group helps mothers who have lost children to violence.
"It has a ripple effect on the whole community," said Ibrahim about the grief that follows homicide.
"The family needs support. The siblings need support. The community needs support. It's so many layers of trauma after trauma."
In response to the the Homicide Tracker, Ibrahim said: "It's painful to see the figures on it," but it's needed to draw attention to what's happening.
At the root, Ibrahim emphasizes, it's systemic issues like racism that continue the cycle. And she says people are "normalizing" what's happening to people of Black and African descent.
"People are really blind to what is happening and what is taking place in and around the city, around the community.".
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
