Media Bias and the Boxing Day Shooting

On Boxing Day in downtown Toronto a young women by the name of Jane Creba was shot during a gun battle between two groups of men. She died on that downtown street. Jane was white.
Everyone in Toronto (and likely Ontario) knows this story, and knows the name of the girl who was killed. The investigation is on-going, vigils have been held, media attention was prolific. With this death certain people have stepped forward and started complaining. They aren’t complaining about gun violence, they aren’t complaining about personnel safety, they are complaining about the bias in the media. They complain that if Jane had been a minority, and he skin colour had been different that the story wouldn’t have been as big as it was. They argue that we would not know her name, they argue we would not have held vigils for the innocent girl, they argue we would have been apathetic to this crime.
I argue that they are wrong. I don’t believe that the media coverage of this shooting would have been any less if Jane was a minority. The most important aspect of this story is where and when the crime occured. It happened in downtown Toronto, on Boxing Day, in a public area filled with a large number of people.
I’m not saying that the media isn’t caucasian oriented. I’m just saying in this particular case the colour of Jane’s skin had nothing to do with it. I agree that minority related shoots do not get the coverage required. I agree that minority related shoots are very rarely seen on the front page of the newspaper. I also agree that things need to change. I believe that we all need to work together and start listening to each other to resolve these issues. Every life lost is important, no matter what the colour of the persons skin is.

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  1. Where are you? I hope everything is okay!