Random syringe attack shows Toronto now a dangerous city

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It’s safe to say this was not a safe-injection site location at Yonge and Dundas Sts.

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Not just for junkies, but for the innocent 20-year-old woman randomly stabbed with a used syringe.

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“They were not only strangers, we do not believe they had any interaction,” Toronto Police Const. Victor Kwong said of the suspect and the victim in this case.

At this point, police “do not know what was in the syringe.”

What they do know is this woman was taken to hospital with worries she has contracted HIV, hepatitis or will suffer the ill effects of tainted narcotics that can be associated with used needles.

This is a serious incident Toronto should not ignore. It didn’t happen at 3 a.m. in an alleyway full of people looking for smack. This happened in the busiest part of town at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

“A man approached the victim from behind” and “stabbed the victim with a syringe” and then “fled” and “was last seen entering the subway at Yonge St. and Dundas St. W.”

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While police hunt for a suspect, a young woman has a terrifying road of worry ahead.

Toronto Police say Aaron Chomenchuck, 43, of no fixed address, is “wanted for aggravated assault and assault with a weapon,” following the needle attack.

This is a reminder Toronto can be a very dangerous city in which you can be attacked, pushed, stabbed or spat on just because you are there.

“We now have street persons (allegedly) stabbing young women with dirty needles and then fleeing into the crowded subway where they could attack again,” said 2023 Toronto mayoral candidate Anthony Furey. “I campaigned on phasing out drug-injection sites and replacing them with more treatment centres because we all knew these sorts of attacks were going to happen more often.”

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Branding the “city’s outdated approach to drug culture so reckless,” Furey said Toronto giving out “free needles and crack pipes, no questions asked, without even hinting to users that there are services available to clean up their lives” makes one wonder “how many more innocent people need to be hurt before the city wakes up?”

We have seen a lot of weird things and reported a lot of random attacks right at that corner, or nearby, where people were badly hurt or killed. Of course, no one in power ever thinks that maybe it’s time to close the nearby safe-injection site, but instead, they’re focusing on changing the name of the square because of some manipulation of history from 200 years ago.

While this is not the first sneak needle attack, everything about Toronto changes when this kind of insanity happens. People don’t feel safe.

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“I was . . .  just minding my own business” at Yonge and College Sts. when “somebody bumps me on my lower right back,” Junlan Li told reporters in 2022. “It was just on fire. And then, I reached back around, felt on my back, and I realized I have like a pin prick on my lower back right where I was poked.”

After bloodwork, the CBC and CTV reported, she attended an infectious disease clinic.

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While Mayor Olivia Chow and her band of socialist councillors are publicly flirting with a double-digit tax hike, and a budget reduction for Toronto Police, all hell is breaking loose on the streets, the TTC and the parks.

This is worse than any COVID-19 mask violation. It’s mayhem out there and while Chow cannot be blamed for everything, people realize the drug-addict-enabling crowd have failed with their phony harm-reduction, safe-injection and safe-supply approach.

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Look over at Clarence Square Park, near Spadina Ave. and King St., where they still haven’t cleaned up the place, even though there was a major fire there recently. Spent needles can be seen there on the ground and on sidewalks all over the city. Instead of trying to stop people from using syringes, they hand them out like candy.

This is no time to be lowering the police budget.

Listening to Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw justify his request for a budget increase on John Moore’s Newstalk 1010 morning show on the same day as this incident, it’s obvious politicians need to get out of their bubbles and look at the streets. Demkiw warned average emergency call response times will go up from 22 minutes if his requested budget increase is reduced by the city.

Some 34 cars are stolen or carjacked each day in Toronto and there is a seemingly endless series of  robberies, smash-and-grabs and muggings. And people stabbed with needles.

We need more police, more rehabilitation centres and more common sense.

Those that disagree: Please express it to this poor woman, who will wonder for the rest of her life what was in that syringe and whether it will come back to kill her?

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