Shameless Wire, our new training program for young journalists, is in
full swing. Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing a number of
guest posts by Wire participants. This first series responds to
Toronto city councillor and mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti’s
platform, which calls for a city-wide teen curfew.

by BerBer Xue

Councilor Giorgio Mammoliti has been pushing for a teen curfew for half a decade now, and he’s not stopping because of his run for Toronto mayor. I, for one, do not like the fact that Mammoliti wants to pass a curfew that will dictate how our lives are lived.

Mammoliti’s logic for this curfew is that it will reduce the number of murders in Toronto, but he is playing on fear, not logic. People are afraid of guns. People are afraid of teenagers. A natural instinct would be to suffocate that threat of teenagers wielding guns until it is gone. But last time I checked, there are not many teenage murderers in Toronto. Watching the news these days, I do hear my fair share of murders and shootings (more so last year). But the majority of these are done by people over 18.

In any case, this curfew would be an overreaction. This is akin to enforcing the War Measures Act during the October Crisis, over-the-top and unnecessary. Parents should reserve the right to set their own curfews, at their own discretion. It should be the parent’s right, not the government’s, because they know their children far better than an impersonal law.

Finally, let’s talk logistics. How is this going to work? There is no efficient way to keep teenagers off the streets at night. It would take a tremendous amount of people and organization to execute this well. Toronto isn’t a small town; there are so many places where teenagers could be. No matter how much the city spends, most of the night owls will be able slip away - we’re like Jell-O in that way.

Mammoliti wants to use teenagers as a scapegoat, but his plan will backfire. I know parents who are not voting for Mammoliti just because of this curfew issue, because they do not appreciate Mammoliti’s insinuations. If only youth could also vote, just for this one election - we would show Mammoliti a real reason to fear Toronto’s youth.

Shameless Wire, our new training program for young journalists, is in
full swing. Over the next few months, we’ll be publishing a number of
guest posts by Wire participants. This first series responds to
Toronto city councillor and mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti’s
platform, which calls for a city-wide teen curfew.

by Diana Faria

City Councillor Georgio Mammoliti thinks that we need a curfew for Toronto’s teenagers. Mammoliti is wrong. He is also making way too many assumptions about teens, implying that we are all irresponsible, that we all need this.

We probably shouldn’t be taking Mammoliti seriously anyway – after all, his platform includes a casino and a red-light district in downtown Toronto, and giving bylaw officers guns. Strangest of all, Mammoliti argues that a curfew would reduce the murder rate. That is ludicrous. To quote Statistics Canada, “in 2008, 55 youth aged 12 to 17 were accused of committing homicide.”

Does he realize that with Canada’s population at 30 million and growing, having only 55 youths accused of committing murder is extremely small? We can clearly state here that youth homicides are both rare and unusual. Statistics Canada also points out that “80% of solved homicides were committed by someone known to the victim.” The main problem does not lie in strangers on the street, attacking other strangers at random.

If the problem is that teenagers are murderers, as Mammoliti seems to believe, than why not focus on the biggest problem, which is gang violence, instead of trying to label every teenager by making a curfew? In 2008, gang violence was on the rise. Why didn’t Mammoliti look at those statistics before trying to force a curfew on every teenager, peaceful and violent alike? Of course there are teens out there who are lost and confused, some even involved with gangs. But most teens do not need this curfew, and Mammoliti should leave them alone.