Anita Arvast - What Killed Jane Creba: Rap, Race, and the Invention of a Gang War

Copyright Anita Arvast, 2016

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Editor: Michael Melgaard

Design: Jennifer Gallinger

Cover design: Sarah Beaudin

Cover image: iStock.com/Matteo Battagliarin

Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Arvast, Anita, author

What killed Jane Creba : rap, race, and the invention

of a gang war / Anita Arvast.

Includes bibliographical references.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-4597-3506-4 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-4597-3507-1 (pdf).-

ISBN 978-1-4597-3508-8 (epub)

1. Creba, Jane, 1990-2005--Death and burial. 2. Victims of violent

crimes--Ontario--Toronto. 3. Violent crimes--Ontario--Toronto. 4. Gangs-

Ontario--Toronto. 5. Toronto (Ont.)--Race relations. I. Title.

HV6439.C32T67 2016 364.106609713541 C2016-900878-9

C2016-900879-7

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

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Dedicated to the artists who keep it real

so they can foster understanding and hope,

to all the families who have lost their children

at the hands of gun violence,

and to the advocates who are willing

to raise their voices.

Epigraph

Fighting crime by building more jails is like fighting cancer by building more cemeteries.

Paul Kelly, author

Wish Canada still had the death sentence for the lot of them.

Comment posted on a story about
the Jane Creba murder trials

Authors Note

W hen I first began following the trials of the many young men charged with the killing of Jane Creba on the street outside of the Toronto Eaton Centre on Boxing Day 2005, I was disturbed by what was being reported in the news. Of course, we all wanted to blame the thugs the young men whose parents had come from Jamaica but the situation was far more complex than what was reported.

To arrive at the writing of this book, I spent years attending the trials, scouring academic journals and media reports, and conducting interviews, in addition to reviewing seventy-five banker boxes of trial files that one of the accused handed over to me. Those files form the bulk of the information I present in this book; they included police notes, wiretaps, forensics, statements of the accused, and statements from informants, in addition to thousands of transcripts from preliminary hearings and the actual trials. These files also included much information that I cannot write about for legal reasons.

Some of the people who were involved directly with this case believed I could add some substance, to tell their stories in a way that is not meant to garner sympathy or provide excuses, but rather, offer a level of understanding in a situation we should not be expected to understand, let alone accept.

The information I was given was not something anyone can easily get a hold of. Many people trusted me by giving numerous interviews. I gave them all the same promise that I would share their truths.

I hope I have upheld that promise I made.

Index of Characters Directly Involved

Toronto Hoods
Only hoods connected directly to the Creba shooting are shown here.

Introduction

Question Marks

O n December 26, 2005, guys with guns drew on each other on one of the busiest streets in Canada on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. The guys who drew the guns were almost all men of colour. The shots shook Toronto and the whole nation to its core as it took the life of a sweet, fifteen-year-old girl who was merely crossing the street in the midst of what all accounts would call a case of rival gangs taking their rivalries to the streets.

In the city that was known as Toronto, the good, we had shit to deal with.

Jane Creba. Homicide #78/2005.

Just like that. A number.

She had a gentle smile. She was a grade 10 honours student and star athlete at Riverdale Collegiate. She lived a comfortably upscale life with her remarkably supportive family in Torontos primarily Greek neighbourhood. Her home was just a stones throw away from some of the major projects in Toronto, where guns were put on in much the same fashion most people would put on underwear. She was from a neighbourhood. They were from a hood.

Jane stole our hearts.

She was a beautiful child.

She was a beautiful child who shouldnt have died.

Like so many children.

Janes shooting created terror, followed by demands that someone step up to prevent another such death. The Green Apple Project, named after Janes favourite food, brought massive police raids to fourteen various low-income areas in Toronto, resulting in hundreds of detentions primarily of young, black men.