Toronto is in the midst of a gun violence crisis that is putting everyone’s lives at risk. We need an effective solution, and we need it now. In 2018, Toronto saw a 48% increase in homicides since 2017, and over 18,000 reported assaults within the GTA. At the end of 2019, more than 760 people had been shot in the city, 44 of whom were killed, according to Toronto Police. That's triple the number of shooting victims in the city in 2014.

Advance Peace is a mission dedicated to ending cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in American urban neighbourhoods. The Advance Peace program started in Richmond California in 2007 when the city’s homicide rate was 8x the national average. Their goal was to bring peace to the streets by working with the very people that had a hand in its violence. The city hired ex-cons and sent them into the most violent neighborhoods to keep the peace and positively influence those who were at risk of offending. The next year the homicide rate declined 40%. Since the fellowship started, the city has seen dramatic results, including a record low of 11 gun homicides in 2014 -- the lowest number of people killed in Richmond in four decades.

This petition is to demand that Mayor John Tory and Premier Doug Ford implement the Advance Peace program in Toronto, Ontario. 

Sincerely,
Operation Prefrontal Cortex