Media Advisory: Recent GTA Murders Call for Taskforce on Violence Against Young Males (Feb 22, 2013)

MEDIA ADVISORY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Recent GTA Murders Call for Taskforce on Violence Against Young Males

TORONTO, ONTARIO – (Feb 22, 2013) –  With an ambush of four teenage males in Whitby just last night, the Canadian Centre for Men and Families (CCMF) expresses horror at the recent murders of teenage boys in the GTA, and calls on authorities to study the factors that make boys and young men – even those innocent of crime – disproportionately more likely to be targets of violence.

“We call on legislators and the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to form a Taskforce to focus explicitly on violence against men, that is on young males as victims of unnatural deaths,” said CCMF Spokesperson Malcolm Johnston.

Teenage boys and young men are over 3 times more likely to die of preventable deaths than women, and Canadian men on average die 6 years earlier than women. Males account for 97% of workplace deaths, over 70% of all homicides, and take their lives at a rate that is four times higher than that of women.

Every unnatural death in Canada is tragic, and when avoidable must be taken as a failure on society’s part.

“While Canadian society has made significant steps in addressing issues of violence with regard to women, our discussion on gender and violence must evolve to appreciate the issues faced by boys and young males,” said Johnston. “It will require dedicated and possibly gender-specific resources to adequately respond to this enormous challenge.”

CONTACT

Amber Taylor
Canadian Centre for Men and Families
info@menandfamilies.org
416-479-0718

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