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It’s as if our political leaders (and I use that term loosely) don’t want to know and don’t care as long as they appear to be doing something.

After I watched federal minister of border security and organized crime reduction Bill Blair — in yet another vote-buying exercise — throw $7-million Thursday at programs that will allegedly curb the epidemic of gun violence in Toronto, I didn’t know whether to laugh uproariously or cry.

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My first question to both Blair and Mayor John Tory would be, what virtue signalling, fuzzy-wuzzy social programs, healing projects, peer mentoring and basketball courts have worked up to now to stop gang bangers from terrorizing the city of Toronto?

I suspect I wouldn’t be going out on a limb if I said the Blair might as well flush $6.76-million down a big black hole for the good this money has done and will do.

In fact, for the past 14 years — ever since former NDP mayor David Miller fumbled efforts to deal with the Summer of the Gun — we’ve seen money thrown repeatedly at community safety programs in priority neighbourhoods run by an A list of helping groups, with absolutely no checks and balances on whether they’ve achieved anything.