Phil Tank: Stabbings defy stats suggesting a safer downtown Saskatoon (2024)

Random attacks represent a crime category that resonates beyond statistics.

They may be rare, but they’re scary because the victims did nothing to provoke the perpetrators and you can easily imagine yourself in the same situation.

Law-abiding folks who steer clear of the wrong crowd develop a reasonable expectation of a substantially reduced likelihood of becoming victims of violent crime. Mostly, that’s true.

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Most violent crime is indeed committed among people who know each other. As horrific as last year’s mass stabbings that started on James Smith Cree Nation were, they were mostly deliberate and planned.

But two women stabbed in downtown Saskatoon apparently by a random stranger last month on a late Thursday afternoon will be viewed differently; they will indicate to some that your chances of being attacked in downtown Saskatoon have increased, regardless of how irrational that is.

The incidents represent the last kind of notoriety downtown Saskatoon needs right now.

The stabbings echo similar random unprovoked attacks across Canada this year, which some have attributed to untreated mental health issues and the lingering effects of social isolation during the pandemic.

Also, many downtowns have become emptier as a result of the move to working from home and hybrid employment during the pandemic. Saskatoon remains among the worst in Canada with an office vacancy rate downtown above 17 per cent as of March, according to Colliers, well above the national rate.

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Saskatoon’s situation is mitigated somewhat by the addition of a substantial amount of space in the office towers at River Landing, much of which has been filled by companies moving from elsewhere downtown.

That shift has left vacancies in its wake and the random stabbings will hardly serve as an advertisem*nt to relocate downtown.

For those who thought the one bright spot from moving downtown shelter beds to the Fairhaven neighbourhood would be the magic disappearance of the issues downtown, the random stabbings of Danielle Caplette and Syeda Sumika Zaidi suggest otherwise.

But these incidents point to a mental health crisis more than one of simply crime and that requires a wider response.

The attacks recall an assault eight years ago when a man was randomly stabbed five times outside the downtown theatre complex on Second Avenue — steps from where one of the women was stabbed last month.

The 42-year-old man who committed that stabbing confessed his guilt and testified he was a schizophrenic who had failed to take his medication that day and had been drinking.

That incident focused attention on downtown safety and the issues created by The Lighthouse assisted living facility located across from the theatres.

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While we don’t know all of the details surrounding the random stabbings last month, they will undoubtedly raise similar concerns.

But assaults and other violent crimes actually appear to be decreasing downtown. During the first five months of this year there were 82 assaults downtown and a total of 127 so-called crimes against the person.

That’s down from 105 assaults and 147 crimes against the person over the same five months last year. And the numbers are also lower than the last pre-pandemic year with 93 assaults and 135 crimes against the person from January to May of 2019.

Those numbers make it easier to argue that downtown Saskatoon is becoming safer — or at worst remaining the same in terms of safety — than it would to suggest downtown is becoming more dangerous.

But the two random stabbings that have resulted in lingering injuries could shape public perception more than any crime statistics will, as illogical as that is.

The solution to crimes like these lies in addressing mental health and addiction issues. The man with schizophrenia who committed the stabbing outside the theatres eight years ago was sentenced in 2016 to three and a half years in prison.

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But you must wonder whether he got the help he needed in prison or whether he just served his time and was released again with little in the way or rehabilitation.

If we really want safety, we need to address those issues.

ptank@postmedia.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK

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