Machete Attack On Spadina

was there a reason they mentioned it in terms of the location of churches?

This is an excellent example of why we need more stringent machete-control laws.

That location is very public, frequented by families out for walks, the heart of the downtown riverbank.

It means that these attacks (not the first incident with machetes) are moving out of the west side into the mainstream city areas.

When I hear machete, I think Somali. Am I off base here? I don't know much about Saskatoon, but I suspect a liberal city like that would have a big immigrant population.

Walking around downtown with a MACHETE, what a novel idea, me personally maybe a small pocketknife.Something was PLANNED.

This is awesome. I'm moving two blocks away from there at the beginning of May.

No, not Somali, I'll wager.

I have to say that Saskatoon's criminals are creative. A fellow assaulted by a paddle-wielding attacker on Broadway some years back and now machetes. I googled "machete attack" and got hits for incidents in Rwanda and Haiti, but Saskatoon didn't make the cut (ouch) quite yet. I've been living in a small town in Ontario for about a year. It's hard to describe the difference between living in a place that is civil and fairly safe, and living in Saskatoon or PA where you're always looking over your shoulder or expecting your property to be vandalized. Ontario has its problems but in this little backwater (along the shores of Lake Erie) it's like stepping back in time.

This is why I think it's crap that a citizen cannot carry a concealed weapon. My understanding is if a victim has a concealed weapon and uses it to defend themselves against an attacker that victim will get a maditory prison sentance. Is this correct?

Machetes don't kill people, people kill people.

"Let's pray everyone focuses on the root causes."
We all know the causes,Kate. It's the ones the politicos and do-gooders give that PO me.

Kinda funny...every time I start thinking I kinda miss being in Saskatoon, something like this happens. It'll be interesting to see what the spin machine at city hall has to say about it.

When I saw "Spadina", naturally, I thought the crime occurred in Toronto, and I was steeling myself for David Miller's campaign on machete control, machete education, and building more basketball courts. Not that I'm happy this happened anywhere, but for once, I'm glad it's not in the Big Smoke.

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kate... there's something missing here.

was this a "targeted slashing"?

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not the 'big smoke'.....this term suggests industry....activity......progress.....

i would suggest more the 'great wen' as Cobbett had it...a pustulating boil seeping it's septic malfluence to the surrounding tissue...

neo: "It was not known if it was a targeted attack".
Vancouver just had an assault that had all the indications of a sexual assault but the MSM is still in the "was it targeted" lockjaw of the brain mode.
Concealed Carry; the only way to stop this. A safer society is an armed society.

This just confirms that we need a national machete registry and that will put an end to these incidents. Oh, my, I forgot that the gun registry did not eliminate gun crimes.

Damn thats a bad situation to be in. For starters it says 3 people attacked the victim. That's bad news. Anyone who's done any unarmed combat knows that a blade involved is really bad news. And a machette! Can't say I've seen any unarmed combat that covers that. I have no idea what the proposed defense against the downward swing of what ammounts to sword would be. Personally I'd say the Nike defense (aka run away) would be your only option. Anything else and you are getting cut.

I've walked that area many times. Who could imagine it would be a dangerous place, especially at 5 pm. Had the victim been armed and trained, he could still easily come away the loser in that scrap.

I do wonder if this was targetted violence, however. Gang related maybe?

Its real shame the police didn't bump into these thugs as they made their escape. If they could put themselves within 21 feet of em it wouldn't be hard to find an excuse to give them a little lead injection.

Its gonna be tough to verify if Anonymous commenter's are indeed Anonymous.Especially if Machete rampages are going on.

Three criminals with a machete attack citizen in broad daylight, in the heart of downtown, close to the police station. The Mayor, Police Chief and CKOM's John Gormley tell citizens Stats Canada and Maclean's are wrong to label Saskatoon the most dangerous city in Canada.

"We're safe, Be Happy!" "We're safe, be happy!" We're safe, Be Happy!" ...AHHHHH

Young adults are responsible? What are those? I thought we called anyone under 40 comitting crime 'youths'

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"annie asks... Young adults are responsible? What are those?"

oh gawd... three totally nondescript adults... why, it could be
any one of us!!!

flee, flee... run away!!!

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Hutus...Tutsis...in the streets of OUR cities !

A "planned attack" is not always a "targeted attack". They might have just picked the victim at random. If so, that is the most feared type of violence. No one is immune to that sort of attack. The only cure for that is an armed citizenry. Nothing too outlandish, a 38 special revolver would end the slashing careers of those individuals.

John Begley:

I suggest you learn to use Google before you post. The GTA has over 400,000 manufacturing workers, even after the recent automotive troubles, which is MORE MANUFACTURING JOBS than in all of Alberta.

Go p*ss up a rope, you ignorant, uneducated, disrespectful idiot. There are hundreds of thousands of people working in manufacturing in Ontario - and by manufacturing, I mean actually making something, rather than digging oil out of the ground. I keep hearing all you Albertans bragging about your entrepeneurial spirit - well, where are the RIM's, the Biovails, the Manulifes from Alberta? Oh, suddenly, you have to STFU, don't you, because there aren't any.

I've said many times here I don't begrudge Alberta its oil but I am sick to f***ing death with your attitude that you're better than the rest of Canada. You're not, you're broke this year, and if oil prices stay low, your prospects don't look a helluva lot better, do they? Four more years of $50 oil, and let's see how friggin' entrepeneurial and self sufficient you are. Idiot.

"I've said many times here I don't begrudge Alberta its oil but I am sick to f***ing death with your attitude that you're better than the rest of Canada."

We are better!

Heard an interview with a guy jogging down the trail. He said the three looked at him in an unsettling manner so he went up the hill. Didn't say he called the cops though. They might even want to know that kinda stuff.

I was speaking to a consultant I was working with. He was just attacked by 3 street kids in Victoria, knocked unconscious and robbed, a week off of work and still not 100% better. Random crime happens far more than they want to admit. My wife carries a large can of bearspray. Coming from Asia she does not have rose coloured glasses on that most Canadians seem to have.

“Authorization to Carry” (ATC) is already legal under Canadian law, they just have to open the requirements so lawabiding and trained citizens can carry if they so choose to. Presently only ‘important” people can get it. I don’t know about you but I feel that my wife, children and self are as important as any politician, judge or politically connected person.

I humbly suggest that some people in the GTA need to check their meds or take it easy on the caffine.

The sad fact is that gangs and gang violence has taken over many of Canada's cities and to date there has been no sucess in trying to get rid of it. This just emboldens (is that a word?) these hoodlums even more.

KevinB....I could never understand why pompous arrogant fools like yourself don't simply come out to Alberta and help yourself in "digging oil out of the ground". You are obviously entirely uneducated in the entire matter of oil extraction whether it be from deep wells or from the oil sands. And in case you missed it, a good portion of the goods manufactured in the east would have come out to Alberta....but now with the economic slowdown, there will be no "have" provinces in Canada anymore. But then that is the logical outcome of socialists anyway.....everyone is at the same, low level. Oh....and in case you missed it, without oil and gas, your manufacturing wouldn't be cranking too much of anything out, would it?

As for manufacturing in Alberta, I wonder how much there would now be if it weren't for the billions upon billions poured into Ontario and Quebec for the manufacturing base. My guess is, for instance, if the airline industry had been moved to Alberta rather than Quebec, et al, it might be doing a lot better than it is now.

So settle down. Your attitude stinks.

Texas: "The sad fact is that gangs and gang violence has taken over many of Canada's cities a.."

When it comes to gang violence and crime, the gang violence itself, enhances crime. Free needles enhance crime; "safe" injection sites enhance crime; easy sentencing enhances crime; country club prisons enhance crime; no charges for grow-op tenders; etc...
If You Build It They Will Come: Is The Operative Quotation. We built it. Now go burn another candle in the park.

The proof is in the pudding.

Ontario - sales tax

Alberta - no sales tax

We are better and more independent. And oil has been below $50 a lot more than it's been above $50.

What has this to do with machete attacks? The spirit of "shoot, shovel, and shut up". heh We mostly take care of things ourselves. Unlike socialist places where people only whine to gov't.

More cultural activities acted out by the Native community?

Kate:

Since you'll wager it wasn't Somalis, did you have someone else in mind?

Well, Bob, let's look at the facts:

This happened nearly 24 hours ago and we don't have a description beyond "three adult males", despite the fact that they're still at large, and everything points to this being a random attack. (A jogger reports he narrowly escaped three men who surrounded him in the same area a few minutes earlier).

And now the police spokeswoman is stating that it's too early to determine if the attack was "gang related".

The scarcity of information, and the non-denial denial are pretty good indicators.

Let us not use the term machete but large knife. Machete is a culturally sensitive term that only a white racist would use.

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"Machete is a culturally sensitive term..."

so, in the interest of not hurting anyone's feelings,
perhaps we could go with the culture-neutral
term... "edged appliance".

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Kate:

So, your line of reasoning is that since the police haven't said anything that would implicate a "cultural background" (or gang relation) that there actually is no cultural or gang connection?

I thought they were just being politically correct.

Are there no Somali gangs? Who carries machetes?
Maybe it was Adam Leon.

"Edged Appliance"! HAHAHAHAHA!!

That gets MY vote for Barak/Hillary euphemism of the week!

Hey, Vit are you by? Remember, there are no dangerous cities in Canada.

Anyone who has spent any time in any of the big centers in Saskatchewan knows exactly what is going on here.

Is there a greyhound bus terminal in that area?

Does that mean we start calling rifles... thundersticks?

I did not say that "there are no dangerous cities in Canada". I said that "No Canadian cities are in the top few dangerous cities. How can one expect others to seriously consider one's conjectures when one's rhetoric is always over the top?" The defense rests, your honour.

Check this out!

http://www.break.com/index/dude-mugged-on-paris-bus1.html

Sad..

Sig:

Ballistic force projector.

I own a machete - the hardest part to believe about this story is that the man survived. I do not get much use for my machete because of its size. The blade is 14.5 inches long and over 2.5 inches wide at the widest. The handle fits my hand quite nicely but since it was made for cutting through South American jungle, I have not had too much use for it.

We did make good use of it once. When I lived in Houston, it came in handy for cutting the tough St. Augustine sod when we laid sod. Nothing else worked to cut the matted rhyzomes of St. Augustine sod. One hack cut through the sod almost every time. Even then, I shuddered to think what a machete could do to my hands, feet, arms, or legs. Or neck.

Incidently, I used to live within walking distance of 20th Street and Avenue G.

in the west indies the autochthonous call a machete a "cutlass".....anyway,i do believe everyone in the west indies has a cutlass to hand....

myself i have always carried a 'jack-knife"....for a lifetime xly....the one i've carried forthe last 20 years was given me by Bernard Moitessier(bless him)...it's an Opinel which is a french peasant's couteau...high carbon dulls easily sharpens quickly...

and as anyone in the know knows with a longish weapon like a machete the best tactic is to get 'inside' of it's arc as nimbly and quickly as one can...then one uses whatever is to hand...one's keys...pen or pencil...teeth...ALWAYS go for the eyes of course....pull ears off if possible...and so on....

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm '

i'm reminded of that great old song...

'how do you hutus do what you tutu me ?'

Machetes are absolutely useless in this part of the world. The trees here are much too brittle to be cut with a machete. I've seen people try to cut willows, until they hit a dry stock, That usually ends their machete action.

The only reason stores even carry them is for all the temporary workers we brought in from Africa. I think they're given a voucher, along with the rest of their welcome wagon goodies.

The town of Brooks has a lot of machete incidents. There are quite a few Somalis, and Sudanese working at the Tyson packing plant. The local RCMP have cars at Ezzie's every night. There are metal detectors at every night club entrance. But, as Monte the wonder-boy said, every one of them has been thoroughly screened before entering Canada.