Brad Bradford's crime safety townhall in Lawrence Park reflects anger over break-ins, not recent shooting

Brad Bradford held a crime and safety townhall on July 15 at Glenview Presbyterian Church in Lawrence Park, North Toronto—just four days after a fatal shooting at a street festival on St. Clair Avenue West that killed two and injured five.

The forum drew roughly 40 residents, but the conversation bypassed the recent shooting. Instead, attendees focused on fears of property theft and break-ins. The first person to stand and speak told the room he wanted to buy a gun, citing home invasion concerns that had driven both his grown children to get gun licenses. "I'm going to get my gun license," he said. "It's time to be proactive. We can't be reactive. We can't just wait."

Bradford, seated at the front with a look of "grim concern," listened as the forum unfolded in one of the city's wealthier garden suburbs. His campaign had just launched, and this was his first public event.

The data presented a different picture from residents' fears. Break-ins plummeted during the pandemic and have never returned to pre-2020 levels. After rising briefly between 2022 and 2023, they declined during Mayor Olivia Chow's tenure. Toronto's deputy chief of police said after the St. Clair shooting that Toronto remained one of the safest cities in the world, noting that gun deaths and injuries have trended downward since 2019.

Bradford seized on the St. Clair incident to criticize city leadership, repeating in campaign videos and at a press conference: "People don't experience life in a spreadsheet." He framed the question residents face as: "Do I feel safe?" Some observers saw the move, coming early in his bid for mayor ahead of the October 26 election, as opportunistic exploitation of tragedy—but it appears to have solidified a campaign principle: feelings trump facts.

Interviews with Bradford's former staff, council colleagues, and old acquaintances reveal a figure defined by intensity and ambition. Former employees allege he has screamed and sworn at staff, sometimes pushing them to tears. Council colleagues describe him as a bully on the council floor. Nearly everyone contacted struggled to articulate what Bradford genuinely believes or identify his allies on council. Sources noted a marked shift in his two-term arc toward the political right.