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September, 2000
A vicious and cowardly assault
The worst incident in the park this year occurred about 9.30 p.m. on Sunday September 3, when a fight near the basketball court culminated in a group attack by 6-10 hooded, unknown men who kicked one person repeatedly about the head and chest. It happened that a group of families was having a campfire at the fire circle at that time. Bruce Lyne described their horror when they realized that an object being kicked on the middle of the path nearby was a person. They yelled at the attackers to stop and some of them left, but three continued kicking. Six people from the family campfire group ran over and then finally the three remaining attackers left. Mr.Lyne, who has his first aid certificate, said the victim was lying motionless and remained unconscious for about four minutes. When the ambulance arrived he was taken away on a back-board and oxygen, to the St.Michael's Hospital Trauma Unit. Mr.Lyne said the emergency response was prompt but that he was troubled when a police officer suggested this was perhaps a drug-related matter and therefore not to be taken very seriously. Mr.Lyne said it looked more like a mob attack to the witnesses, and the families left the park immediately after, with some concern about the effect on their children of having seen this.
It may be that one lasting positive effect on the children will be that they learned that their parents help out people in danger, instead of turning away as sometimes seems to happen. The prompt courageous action by these families may have saved the victim from permanent injury or worse, and they should be honoured for this. At this time, however, it's hard to know how the victim is doing and whether any charges have been laid: three days of calls to the City Councillor's office have only turned up the astonishing information that the police at Fourteen Division could not find a record of this matter. The attack was witnessed by a number of local young people (some of whom also called 911). It may be that if a young resident of Havelock Street or Gladstone Avenue had been the victim of this group attack, the response would have been somewhat stronger than it seems to have been to date. Some of the witnesses who saw this group assault have developed a fear of a park (ours) where people would dare to carry out such an attack, oblivious to the presence of other park users. For more information please call Councillor Mario Silva's office at 392-7012.