[LINK] Some Friday Links

• First, from The Toronto Star, confirmation that two people were shot, one a woman who was hit in the ankle by a bullet, the other a man who seems to have been shot in the chest. Police are still looking for the suspect. (Another, fatal, shooting has taken place in east-end Toronto, outside an apartment building where someone had gotten shot on Saturday. Guess which one will get more media attention in the morning papers.) Cultural capital, people, cultural capital.


• The Lousnbury at 'Aqoul has an extended post ("Ya Rayah...Ch7al nedmou lebad l-ghafline qblek: Southern Med & Socio Economics" on the generally positive prospects for solid economic growth across most of the Middle East and North Africa.


• Roger at blogTo starts an interesting conversation about bike theft from the recent arrest of a used bike shop owner for ... stealing bikes. (Double locks leave me feeling safest.)
  
• Centauri Dreams wonders what the chances are for the discovery of life on Saturn's water-geyser moon of Enceladus and if we're already able to detect it.


• Language Log's Arnold Zwicky isn't overfond of an excess of links.


• Strange Maps features a am f the world as seen from Paris, originally designed by a French magazine and publicized by a Swedish journalist.


• Finally, Martin Wisse reinforced from a recent annafdd comment elsewhere on the extreme subjectivity of the "race" used in "racism."

[LINK] "Crime down in Toronto"

The Toronto Star's Francine Kopun has on that apper's front page an article that happens to have somewhat ironic timing considering last night's events, "Crime down in Toronto".

Greater Toronto is the safest large metropolitan area in the country, according to a report released yesterday by Statistics Canada.

Among urban areas with a population of 500,000 or more, Toronto residents reported fewer crimes per capita than residents of Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa. Winnipeg had the highest crime rate, followed by Edmonton.

It is the first time that Toronto has scored last place when it comes to crime in the country's biggest cities. That spot is usually reserved for Quebec City, which reported the lowest crime rate of any large metropolitan area every year from 1991 to 2006. In 2007, however, Quebec City reported 4,524 crimes per 100,000 people, compared to Toronto's figure of 4,461.

The annual national crime report is compiled by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, based on police-reported crime statistics.

It contradicts what seems to be a growing public perception that Toronto is rife with random violence – like the death of John O'Keefe, killed by a stray bullet on Yonge St. in January; or Hou Chang Mao, killed in gunfight crossfire a few days later in East Chinatown; or Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin, shot dead in their SUV in front of Trinity Bellwoods Park in June.

[. . .]

The rate of violent offences in Toronto – 709 per 100,000 – puts it in the safest third of the pack of CMAs with a 500,000-plus population.

The murder rate in Toronto CMA in 2007 was 2.0 per 100,000, which was middle of the pack for the country's nine largest CMAs. Winnipeg's rate was the highest at 3.6.

But in 2007, Toronto had the most homicides of any CMA – 111 – and its highest rate since 1992.

[. . .]

The Toronto CMA, as defined by Statistics Canada, includes York, Peel, Halton and Durham and Orangeville police statistics as well as statistics from Ontario Provincial Police in Caledon, Nottawasaga, Aurora, Whitby and Mono.