THANK YOU CONSTABLES
All men and women are created equal and some become police officers. Rest in peace OPP Const Tarun Bali and Toronto Police Const. Marc Pinizzotto. We will remember your sacrifice. We have the watch.
Bob Eberle Retired, TPS
(Taken too soon, they will be remembered for their bravery and dedication)
TORONTO CAN COURSE CORRECT
When I worked in Montreal in the summer of 1973, fresh out of high school, the city was clean, orderly, and safe. After three years at the Kapuskasing paper mill, I moved to Toronto in 1976, and the city was a dump: The Yonge Street “Sin Strip,” massage parlours everywhere, drugs, street prostitution, and filth you had to see to believe. I eventually moved to Berry and Park Lawn area of Etobicoke because downtown had become a place you couldn’t live safely anymore. The Emanuel Jaques murder in 1977 and the Albert Johnson shooting in 1979 finally forced Toronto to clean itself up. For decades afterward, the city actually improved. It became a place you could proudly show visitors. Reading Christina Blizzard’s June 6 column “Hogtown sty” about her friend’s visit, it’s depressing how familiar it all sounds. Distraction‑theft attempts, psychotic episodes on streetcars, vaping gangs on the subway, elevators and escalators broken, protesters blocking roads — this is the same lawless, leaderless Toronto I remember from the ’70s — except now it’s happening in a city that should know better. Toronto fixed itself once, it can do it again. But pretending everything is fine is exactly how we ended up in this mess the first time.
Brent Blackburn Listowel, Ont.
(When the excitement of the World Cup ends, reality will kick in and Toronto will be back to the crime and grime which has engulfed the city)
