The shooting on Market St. last night has compelled me to share something I had no intention of ever sharing. I almost deleted this post three times. In the summer of 1993 I was nearly beaten to death. While leaving an apartment I was mistaken for someone else and two men beat me with a metal pipe until I stopped moving. They continued their assault after I lost consciousness. The doctors later told me had they not stopped when they did I wouldnt have survived the attack. I wont get into the details around the recovery process because to be honest some if its embarassing and Im not ready to talk about it yet. Suffice to say, this was a life-altering event. 21 years later Im sitting at a table in my bakery less than a minute from where I was almost killed... and you know what? Im still here. This is my city. This is my downtown. This is my home and Im not going anywhere. What happened to me wasnt downtown Brantfords fault. It was the fault of two drunken assholes. Period. In the coming days and weeks there will be a lot of discussions about what happened on Market Street last night. My hope is that during these discussions we remember two key points: 1.) Crime is not unique to Brantford. A scathing indictment of the city as a whole makes little sense. There is criminal activity in every community. If this wasnt the case, Brantford would be the only city with a Police Department. 2.) There have been, and will continue to be, significant improvements and growth in our downtown. I know. Ive been down here for more than four years watching it for myself. (This means I know better than someone from elsewhere in Brantford who hasnt been downtown in 10 or more years) Im elated that no one was killed last night. My hope is the suspects are apprehended swiftly and punished severely. I also hope that a constructive dialogue will emerge from this situation and one day we can say: We are better today than we were yesterday. Well be better tomorrow than we were today and there is nothing that can stop the people of this community. Thank you for listening.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 16:16:31 +0000
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