MoveIn Status
Praying for a team.

Firsthand
A wave of gun violence in Toronto in 2005 left 52 people dead. Five of those victims were young men who were shot in a four-month span in Rexdale near Albion and Martin Grove roads where the Panorama Court, Stevenson Road, and Smithfield Park patches are located. During one victim’s funeral at a Seventh Day Adventist Church, another victim, 18, was shot to death on its steps. Youth in the area say drugs trigger the gun violence because large amounts of money are at stake.

At local Father Henry Carr Catholic high school, students must wear photo identification and walk under the watchful eye of security cameras. Police visit frequently. Students are not allowed to wear their hoodies pulled up so that no one’s identity is concealed.

Local youth also say they know of immigrants committing suicide by jumping off buildings because the bright future they hoped for in Canada did not work out. ¹

The Landscape
The Panorama Court patch contains five high-rise apartments, including four market-rent buildings. Humberview Park—with its many trees and bike trails—surrounds the patch on the north and east sides. Panorama Park is to the south. The Albion Centre mall is a five-minute walk away.

The People
Many East Indians, West Indians and Iraqis live in this patch. Many of those from India follow the Sikh religion.

A number of the Iraqis have a nominal Christian background stemming from Orthodox, Coptic or Catholic traditions.

In the wider neighbourhood that the patch belongs to: ²

• Population density is 10,178 people per square kilometre compared with the 866/km² Toronto average
• In 2006, 25% of the population was age 14 or under, compared with the Toronto average of 16%
• 67% of residents have a first language other than English or French
• 69% of residents were immigrants − 40% arrived in Canada between 2001 and 2006
• Only 31% of the population lived at the same address five years ago indicating a fairly transient population
• In 2006 the unemployment rate was 10.7% as compared with 6.7% in the rest of Toronto
• 85% of residents were visible minorities − 41% were South Asian and the next largest group was black at 20%
• In 2006, 32% of residents were considered to have low, before-tax incomes as compared with 18% in the rest of Toronto

The History
Rexdale, which surrounds the patch, was still farmland in the 1950s when developer Rex Heslop began buying land here. Heslop anticipated that the completion of Highway 401 and the need for employees at the nearby Toronto International Airport would create demand for houses in Rexdale. He was right. Houses in the subdivision sold out quickly between the mid 1950s and the early 1960s. At the request of what was then called the City of Etobicoke, Heslop developed the farmland on the southern border of the subdivision into what is now one of the city’s largest industrial corridors.³

The Challenge
A Christian family that lives in this patch has built a relationship with a Sikh family in the neighbourhood over the past few months. Recently they shared the meaning of the resurrection and crucifixion with the father of the family. As the Christians were leaving, the man’s 15-year-old-son asked passionately, “Why does God let some people suffer so much more than others?” Would you be willing to move into this neighbourhood to build relationships and answer questions like this?

Sources
¹ www.youtube.com
²All statistics in the section taken from Census tract profile for 0250.05 (CT), Toronto (CMA) and Ontario.
³With information from Toronto Neighbourhoods