To prevent homicide in Toronto, we must start with addressing grief in Black communities, writes Tanya Sharpe for the Toronto Star

Recent research illustrates the magnitude of this crisis. Preliminary data from The Centre for Research and Innovation for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims (The CRIB), which I lead at the University of Toronto, indicates that in Canada, a Black person is likely to experience the homicide of a loved one at least three times in their lifetime.

That’s higher than the statistic for Black Americans, who will experience the loss of a loved one to homicide at least twice. In Toronto, the homicide victim rate is nearly 10 times higher for Black males than the rest of the population.

Make no mistake, though. This isn’t a disease of Black communities. It’s a societal problem that will continue to worsen if not addressed. As with the inequitable spread of COVID-19, racism and inequalities embedded in our social structures and systems underlie homicide’s disproportionate pervasiveness.

But even as our municipal, provincial and federal governments undertake violence prevention initiatives, the unique grief that Black communities face due to homicide remains largely overlooked.

This unaddressed, unsupported grief combines with both intergenerational and present-day trauma from anti-Black racism and discriminatory social systems to drive the cycle. Addressing the gap in culturally attuned mental health and grief counselling services for Black survivors of homicide victims is vital to preventing further violence.

Click here to read Dr. Tanya Sharpe’s full op-ed in the Toronto Star.