The mother of two girls who were shot in a Scarborough playground this summer is decrying the province’s sudden decision to renege on funding promised to an afterschool music program for youth.

Stacey King is adding her voice to those objecting the recent decision by the Ontario government to cancel a $500,000 funding grant that had been promised this spring to Sistema Toronto.

The afterschool program — which teaches music to children in Parkdale, Jane-Finch and East Scarborough — is precisely the kind of programming King has been advocating for in the wake of the June shooting that injured her daughters and left the city reeling.

Educational, after-school programming “keeps kids off the street and out of trouble,” King said in an interview over the weekend, noting that music gives children and youth an outlet.

“They shouldn’t be getting rid of the programs, they should increase programs,” she said, a message she also relayed to the city’s public health board last month in a powerful deputation on the impact of violence.

Share your thoughts

Last week, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport said it would cut funding for the music program that it says the previous Liberal government hastily announced during the election campaign. Spokesperson Richard Clark said Sistema did not meet the criteria for the grant.

Clark added the Ford government was committed to supporting after-school programs and recently approved support to “over 120 organizations to deliver no-cost or low-cost fun, safe, supervised activities to more than 21,000 students.” The programs will be delivered at over 400 sites in high priority neighbourhoods in Ontario, Clark said.

Hilary Johnson, Sistema’s managing director, called that statement “wild,” saying the organization had been assured that they fulfilled all the requirements. She said the organization will try to continue with its regular programming, but the provincial funds would have been used to expand its reach.

King joins a coalition of community advocates who have banded together to promote a public health approach to gun violence, together speaking out about cuts being made to social programming in the province.

“This safety net now has cracks in it — gaping holes,” said Louis March, founder of the Zero Gun Violence movement, an advocacy group working to end violence in Toronto and beyond.

March said when cuts are made to programs that give people a “helping hand” — in this case, providing a service that helps youth build confidence and creates social ties — “there’s a price to pay as a society.”

Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government has been vocal about the need to address Toronto’s gun violence, as a spike in shootings has contributed to a comparatively high number of homicides in 2018. Recent violence has seen the city hit 68 homicides so far this year; 2017 saw 66 homicides by year’s end.

Earlier this month, he announced the province was giving Toronto police $18 million over four years to address gun violence and gang activity, money spent however Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders deems it necessary.

“We are sending a clear message to the thugs,” Ford said at the announcement. “We are sending a message that we’re coming for them, that we are giving our police the tools they need to hunt them down.”

Critics have called the investment in policing short-sighted, saying without targeted programming, at-risk youth in vulnerable neighbourhoods risk being drawn into gangs and a criminal lifestyle.

“They are going to send the police in, but they are not going to spend money on music instruction — that’s crazy,” said Chris Glover, an NDP MPP representing Spadina-Fort York. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and they’re eliminating the prevention.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Glover’s NDP colleagues and counterparts in the Liberal party have come out hard against the funding cut to Sistema in the days since it was announced. On Twitter over the weekend, Liberal MPP and former minister of education Mitzie Hunter said the work the organization does with kids in East Scarborough “saves lives.”

King agrees, saying she knows after-school programming can divert kids away from getting involved in the kind of violence that injured her girls.

Her daughters are continuing to recover after undergoing surgery in hospital. They are emotionally scarred, King said, and she is taking it “one day at a time.”

Last week, Toronto police arrested and charged Tarrick Rhoden, 23, with attempted murder in connection to the June shooting. Officers had also previously arrested and charged Sheldon Eriya, 21, with attempted murder in the case. A Canada-wide arrest warrant remains out for a third man, T’Quan Robertson, 23, of Toronto.

“I’ll be more relieved when they catch all three of them,” King said.

With files from Gilbert Ngabo