Above photo: JACQUES GALLANT / TORONTO STAR Neighbours set up a makeshift memorial outside the Grandravine Dr. home where friends O’She Doyles-Whyte and Kwame Duodu were fatally shot on Friday. The community is holding a unity barbecue on Sunday with a candle light vigil in the evening.
A community barbecue to promote the end of gun violence will be held in the Jane and Finch community Sunday, following two fatal shootings in the area.
A community barbecue to promote the end of gun violence will be held in the Jane and Finch community Sunday, following two fatal shootings in the area in the past month.
Long-time resident Andrea Tabnor organized the fourth annual Jane and Finch Unity BBQ in the Firgrove Toronto community housing area, featuring a jumping castle, snow cones, burgers, and spoken word and musical performances in an effort to bring the community together as a family.
“Growing up in Jane and Finch for over 32 years and going to over 40 funerals, all I dreamed about when I was young was unity,” Tabnor said.
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Though the event falls soon after the recent shootings in the area, Tabnor began organizing it as early as February.
A candlelight vigil will be held in the evening for 15-year-old Tahj Loor-Walters, who was shot and killed at the Yorkwoods Plaza, and teenagers O’She Doyles-Whyte and Kwame Duodu, who both died in a shooting at the entrance of the community housing complex.
“What’s happening right now for the past few weeks, this is beyond our mentality,” Tabnor said. “We’re in a state of shock.”
United Church community minister Barry Rieder expressed his support for the event, adding that Toronto police and firefighters will also be present to engage with the community.
View Recent Jane and Finch shootings in a larger map
“In the past there have been incidents of violence in the community which doesn’t show what the true sense of the community is,” he said. “It’s more just supporting residents in their own reclaiming back the community in a positive way.”
Tabnor extended her condolences on behalf of the Jane and Finch community to all the families affected by gun violence.
“We do not live in this community as neighbours. We all, no matter what nation we’re from, we are all family,” she said.
“Unity is strength and when we come together and unify this community with the presence of elders, youth, adults, children in one place, enjoying themselves without any violence, that’s what you call … community strength.”