On July 22, the hustle and bustle of Toronto’s busy Danforth Avenue was violently interrupted when 29-year-old Faisal Hussain allegedly opened fire on pedestrians and crowded restaurants, indiscriminately shooting those unfortunate enough to be in the area. These actions resulted in the death of two young people, injuries to 13 and the death of Hussain. The following day, Hussain’s family released a statement describing his history of psychosis and depression. In the statement, the family said “the interventions of professionals were unsuccessful. Medications and therapies were unable to treat him.” This sparked the somewhat predictable move to highlight mental illness as the explanation behind these events – after all, a sane man wouldn’t possibly do this. However, that not only pigeonholes and shames the mentally ill, but also ignores glaring societal factors like racism, poverty, disability, trauma and life experiences. Instead of using mental illness as a way to rationalize how a person could commit such an act, we should be looking at ways to better equip people to address social factors that could be contributing to mental health issues. Access to mental health resources are shamefully inadequate. In our newsroom, we have an employee who has been on a wait list for mental health services for more than seven months. Ontario’s NDP Leader Andrea Horwath told The Star, 12,000 children and youth have been on waiting lists for mental health services for 18 months in that province. While blaming mental illness is an easy out, there is likely more to this story than one “crazy” man.
