The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

c economist suntribune news thursday feb 3 2660 3 youth crime is growing and the community is starting to fight back staff photosjoerd witteveen olga baranovsky right mother of slain teenage matty baranovsky chats with her sons high school principal judy kennedy at a public forum on teen violence held in vaughan monday evening victims mom offers solution to violence by gianni colavecchia staff writer explaining how people can stop the kind of violence that killed her son the words of olga baranovski were simple but profound just to be people thats all she said its a very short answer but thats all baranovski the mother of slain toronto teenager dmitri matty baranovski spoke monday night at the city playhouse in thornhill at a public forum examining the causes of teen violence and the measures people can take to curb it dmitri died last november after a group of youths beat him in a north toronto park his mother was the special guest at the forum called save our children many of the nearly 300 people at the forum spoke of the brutal assault on newmarket teenager jonathan wamback who recently emerged from a threemonth coma after the twohour event baranovski and her husband elliott korczak said they agreed with the wamback familys call to change the young offenders act to make violent youth more responsible for their actions community policing helps com bat teen violence but for korczak the answer tothe problem lies in every person more police isnt going to solve just be people that s all olga baranovski son matty killed in gang beating the problem its just a stopgap measure he said we need to think about the things we can do individually to make things better everybodys got to get involved new york psychologist norman blumenthal echoed a similar senti ment during the forum urging par ents to take a genuine but not over bearing interest in their childrens lives let this be a springboard he said treat the cessation of life with the affirmation of life thats what you are doing here tonight teen tends to create extended minifamilies of friends when his or her parents are not part of the picture blumenthal said but the danger is the friends dont usually place controls on the activities of the family norm gardner chairperson of the toronto police services board said the rate of youth crime more than doubled between 1987 and 1997 youths between the ages of 12 and 17 accounted for nearly one- quarter of all charges laid in the last year for which figures are available from statistics canada he added youth crime is growing he said and toronto is not much dif ferent than york region gardner blamed the stats on a complex network of societal inter ests including military officials who promote a killorbekilled mentali ty and media outlets which feed fears by playing up violence in crime stories he said the young offenders act is absurd and gives thugs unparal leled freedom to commit crimes and suffer relatively few penalties one of its more contentious clauses allows officials to transfer the cases of people as old as 17 years to youth court gardner has been lobbying fed eral ministers to amend the legisla tion so youth aged 15 and older are tried as adults the federal government is reviewing the act but for those who have seen what york regional police const mark altermann has seen changes may not come soon enough the officer has been visiting local schools for about two years and has investigated everything from assaults to shootings its a big problem he said sug gesting the community can help curb youth violence by mentoring children or teaching them skills in organized workshops take that hour that you spend sitting and watching seinfeld reruns and get involved in the com munity he remarked friends give man ehance at life man working two jobs to bring fiancee to canada for march wedding by kathleen griffin staff writer a main street markham restaurateur is being hailed a hero after saving the life of a friend who collapsed in his cafe saturday night twentysixyearold ganeshan elaganeshan calledmohan by his friends remains in a coma in markham stouffviile hospitals intensive care unit hes listed in critical condition and doctors are still trying to determine exactly what happened corrado sortino owner of sortinos cafe has known elaganeshan about six years he was welcoming him to his new restaurant about 8 pm saturday he hadnt been in the door two seconds i said just a second and i wasnt 10 feet away when i heard him fall he was having a seizure of some sort so we put a downfilled jacket under his head and did a finger sweep of his mouth but his breathing became more and more shallow then it stopped entirely and we couldnt find a pulse others soon joined in the bid to save elaganeshan including sortinos brother michael and friends jeff rodricks and mike and gordmerritt they performed cpr until emergency crews arrived and took over they used the defibrillator at least five times and worked on him a good 20 minutes sortino said they ended up getting a faint pulse and rushed him to markham stouffviile everybody told us he would have died without the cpr sortino is still reeling from the incident which happened in front of a dozen patrons mohan was driving two min utes before that if he was alone when it happened he would have died he said it seemed like it was in slow motion everyone remained calm everyone was will ing to help the ambulance people called us his angels and said by keeping his brain oxygenated we may have reduced the possibility of brain damage the emotion in the room when they left well it was some thing elaganeshan a scarborough resident has not regained con- i- j m k fffeji 2b ebb tf ira rcjf r wst ganeshan elaganeshan seizure leaves man in coma sciousness hes on a ventilator to help him breathe and has had at least three cat scans but there was good news yesterday sortino said hes showing movement and opened his eyes at one point all his mother knows is her son may be on his death bed sortino has been helping elaganeshans brother siva and several cousins who are keeping- vigil at the hospital by bringing over food for them helping them understand what the doctors and nurses are saying and moving elaganeshans car off main street elaganeshan is sri lankan and was working two jobs including one at fathers steak house pub in markham to bring his fiancee to canada for their wedding next month j his mother kamalambkai remains in sri lanka and is des perate to get to her sons bedside we will do everything we can to get her here sortino vowed adding hes investigating the possi bility of opening a trust fund to help defray airfare expenses for the family all his mother knows is her son may be oh his death bed his bride is waiting to hear whats happen ing to her future husband its very scary heres a young healthy 26 year old who was always smiling always friendly and this happens when it rains it pours lerashion clearance off regular ticket prices all fall winter fashions fewludes new spring arrivals cruisewear and swimwear peppertree klassics womens fashions 137 main st north oqiqqqo vffic markham village aj000a wwwstarpagescompeppertreeklassics tl s x 66 moin s 905 471 4227 smb j we deliver family restaurant 1x80 1999 readers choice award winner ciipsave buy any menu item over 695 receive the second item of equal or less value for half clipasave seniors special halibut chip with coleslaw tartar sauce visit our web site for further clip a save special wwwmains1igrillcom