I’ve been thinking about the state of our city a lot these days. Toronto has always been a very safe place to live. It used to be called, “Toronto the good,” but now, things have changed. Over the past few years, our city has become increasingly dangerous.

There have been more non-gang-related shootings, stabbings, and random incidents of violence in Toronto than ever before. People are being attacked on the street and in the public transit system.

Just the other day, a 16-year-old boy, Gabriel Magalhaes, was sitting on a bench at Keele subway station, waiting for a train, when a 22-year-old man came up and stabbed him in an unprovoked attack. The teenager died of his injuries shortly afterward. The assailant was undomiciled and apparently, he had suffered from mental health issues. He also had a criminal record, an active arrest warrant issued in Newfoundland, and he had violated a probation order. According to court documents, the murderer had allegedly pleaded guilty to threatening a group of people in 2020.

The mother of the victim bravely spoke out on the radio shortly after she lost her son. She was heard beseeching our politicians to take action against these kinds of attacks. She wants the government to deal more seriously and more immediately with the mental health crisis in our community. I wholeheartedly agree with her.

At the end of January 2023, a CBC producer, Michael Finlay, age 73, was murdered in an unprovoked, random attack by a homeless man presumably suffering from mental health problems.

Mr. Finlay was walking on the Danforth when his attacker, who was wearing a red fire mask, pushed him to the ground. Mr. Finlay died a week later of his injuries. According to locals, the attacker was a threatening presence in the community, often shouting curses at others. He had a long criminal history and was out on bail when Mr. Finlay was attacked.

Torontonians’ Deteriorating Mental Health

The mental health of Torontonians and other Canadians had begun deteriorating even before the pandemic began. The stressors of modern life were creating major problems for vulnerable individuals. And, after three years of increasing hardships, loneliness, isolation, and financial stress brought about by the pandemic, we are now in a mental health crisis of epic proportions.

Even before the pandemic began, colleges and universities were reaching out to community psychotherapists, asking them to come and help counsel their students who were suffering from serious mental health issues. And now, three years into the pandemic, it’s gotten even worse.

Substance misuse is at an all-time high with deaths from overdoses increasing yearly and the suicide rate among young people appears to be climbing. One of the most significant issues we’re facing is a lack of professionals who could provide care to people who are suffering from mental health and addiction issues.

The Accessibility to Mental Health Services

The waiting time to see a psychiatrist can be anywhere from 1 month to up to 2 years in some parts of Canada. The waiting time to see a child psychologist can be just as long. People who need help often simply cannot find it. Over six million Canadians don’t even have a family doctor right now, with a third of them having been looking for more than a year. With no primary care provider, there’s no source of treatment or referral for mental health or addiction problems.

The recent violent incidents on public transit and the streets of Toronto are unprecedented, shocking, and horrifying, but they’re not surprising, given the state of our mental health in the city. Sadly, these incidents are not going to stop if we continue to ignore the root causes.

The Root Causes

We need to address the growing problems of homelessness, substance misuse, unemployment, and a lack of available mental health care. We need to start dealing with the challenges facing our community today or these incidents of random, unprovoked violence will become commonplace.

The federal budget just came out this week and unsurprisingly, there was no money available for the city of Toronto. The feds suggested that the provincial government should be the one to help out, but Queen’s Park appears equally reluctant to bail us out. It seems like everyone is passing the buck.

Toronto is facing a huge budget deficit. It appears that we won’t even be able to afford to maintain our basic infrastructure. With these kinds of financial constraints, it worries me how we are to deal with the mental health crisis we are now facing.

On CBC radio this morning, they were speaking about the need for Toronto to generate income in new ways because the old ways are no longer bringing in enough revenue to support the life of the city. This has to be okayed by the other levels of government in order for it to be enacted and I hope that whoever becomes the new mayor can be creative and persuasive in making it happen.

Band-Aid Solutions are Ineffective

Our former mayor, John Tory, was not a visionary by any means. He brought in more police to the TTC in the hopes of deterring violent attacks, but there is no way that we could possibly post enough police officers to prevent every potential violent incident. More policing is not the answer. This type of solution is dealing with the symptom and not the causes of these incidents.

Adding more police is a band-aid solution and as a doctor, I was always taught that you treat the cause, not the symptom, if you want to effect a real and lasting cure for any ailment.

We must prioritize mental health immediately. If we don’t, I envision parents no longer allowing their children to ride on public transportation. Ridership is already down and if we don’t want our TTC system to collapse, we need to make it safer for everyone.

If we don’t prioritize community mental health, I envision that people will become afraid to walk along the streets. Our city could become a ghost town in which only people in vehicles and the undomiciled will be visible outdoors.

Do we want our citizens to live in fear? Of course not. But if we want things to change, we need action and we need it now.

I implore every citizen to lobby their council members, as well as their provincial and federal politicians to improve mental health services and access to care. We need our governments to recognize how serious this crisis is and to start finding solutions. We cannot have more teenagers dying as they’re waiting for the subway. We cannot have more senior citizens dying as they’re walking down the street.

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