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00:02In Canada's biggest city and in suburbs around Toronto,
00:07black boys are going missing.
00:08They are 13, 14, 15, going on 16.
00:13They are children.
00:14When a mother breaks down on the phone with you and cries
00:17because her son is missing, it's not easy.
00:21It's not easy.
00:22We investigate how young boys are exploited by street gangs,
00:26luring them into a world that can turn deadly.
00:29When it comes to being in the streets, it's a losing game.
00:33Nobody's ever won.
00:34It's either death or in jail.
00:36And we hear from a Toronto rapper, now in prison,
00:40about his involvement in gang life and his influence on black youth.
00:44Don't you think you have also contributed to that glamorizing
00:47of the gangster life?
00:49One thousand percent.
00:50I know this is a life that could ruin their lives.
00:52And it's not just in Toronto.
00:54We're in Thunder Bay, Ontario,
00:56some 1,400 kilometres from Toronto.
00:59So why are so many teenage boys from the big city,
01:03some as young as 14, ending up here selling drugs
01:07for organised crime?
01:08But I don't think they really know what they're getting into
01:11when they come up here.
01:12There's availability for you to make hundreds of thousands
01:15of dollars in this industry.
01:17And we follow some parents race against time
01:19to find their lost boys.
01:21When my son's missing, I'm just looking for my son.
01:24I just want my son back and I'm not leaving until I get him back.
01:27Did you think your son was in danger?
01:28Oh, well, he was missing 100%.
01:30I'm Mark Kelly.
01:31This is The Fifth Estate.
01:45There's a growing fear across Ontario,
01:48as black boys are disappearing from their homes.
01:51Like all teens, they're seeking status, belonging.
01:54However, black boys face greater obstacles.
01:57They're more likely to be suspended from school,
01:59stopped and searched by police,
02:01and face greater challenges getting a job.
02:04Which can lead some to making a choice
02:07that could change their lives forever.
02:09We have a serious problem in Ontario.
02:12There has been a very disturbing amount
02:15of young black males that have gone missing.
02:18December 2024, digital journalist Emma Ansah
02:21amplified what had only been whispered about,
02:24turning it into a cry for help.
02:26The ages for the vast majority of them
02:28are between 15 and 16 years old.
02:31This is a problem.
02:33What are the police doing?
02:35Where are these young boys?
02:37Why are they all missing?
02:40The faces of five missing boys from the Toronto area
02:43were posted on social media.
02:45Their disappearances unrelated, but similarly suspicious.
02:49Boys who walked out of their homes
02:50and away from their families.
02:53Viral videos sound the alarm on several missing black boys
02:57across the GTA, acting as a catalyst for change.
03:01Listen, we have an update on the missing black boys
03:03in the Toronto area to tell you about.
03:05A staggering amount of black boys have gone missing.
03:07There's a serious problem happening in Toronto.
03:09Of course, many people still feel very uneasy
03:12about why this is happening.
03:14Media producer Shayna McCalla felt the boys hadn't only disappeared,
03:17they'd been forgotten.
03:18You know, we're going to talk about systemic failures
03:21and holding people accountable.
03:23And we're no longer staying silent as a community.
03:25So she created a community on Instagram called
03:28Find Ontario's Missing Boys.
03:30And she launched an online petition to get more media attention
03:34and pressure police to step up their search for the boys.
03:37When I saw the images, I definitely panicked a bit.
03:41My heart sank.
03:43And I thought, what could be happening?
03:47That could be my son.
03:49Could be anyone's son.
03:51And why is there nobody talking about this?
03:56McCalla was the catalyst for community town halls.
03:59Drawing attention to parents' fears their boys
04:02were being enticed to make money running drugs for street gangs.
04:06We have decided to create an opportunity to bring the community together
04:11to address this issue.
04:13This conversation is not just about addressing the present concerns.
04:17It is about empowering our community to be proactive, informed,
04:23and united in safeguarding our children.
04:25We are moms. We have six, seven boys among us.
04:29And we need community.
04:31Why do they take these black boys to those places?
04:34We don't know why a young man may disappear.
04:37In 2024, 322 male youth were reported missing to the Toronto Police.
04:44151 were black boys.
04:46That's nearly half.
04:47Though black people make up less than 10% of Toronto's population.
04:51The Toronto Police Service says almost all kids reported missing are eventually found.
04:56But over months investigating this story, the Fifth Estate has seen boys continue to disappear,
05:02leaving parents desperate for help.
05:05No child is off limits.
05:08It sounds horrible.
05:11But it could be anyone.
05:13Please, come home.
05:17You know my number.
05:18You know your dad's number.
05:20And I need to talk to you.
05:22I need to hear your voice, son.
05:26Please.
05:27So what's pulling the boys away from school, sports, and their friends?
05:33One man desperate for answers is a father we're calling Cameron.
05:37His son, who we're calling Alex, first went missing in 2023 at the age of 14.
05:42For legal reasons, we're concealing their identities and altering his voice.
05:47What happened in this gym?
05:49Both my boys played basketball here on Saturdays.
05:52I also remember we were racing.
05:54I remember racing from one end to the next.
05:58He has an older sister and an older brother.
06:01And yeah, it was, we were close in it.
06:03Cameron now remembers red flags when Alex was in grade eight.
06:07Kids that weren't students showing up at his son's school.
06:10At times when I would pick up from the school, you would see that there were older kids there,
06:16right, that were just hanging around, etc.
06:20So that was a concern.
06:22One night that summer, Alex didn't come home.
06:25He vanished for three days.
06:27We were terrified.
06:28We would look, you know, all over to see where he was.
06:32Call his phone.
06:34There would be no response with the phone.
06:36Cameron scoured the neighbourhood, contacted other parents.
06:39He eventually found Alex at an older boy's home.
06:43What we feel happened was that those boys were going to take off.
06:47Cameron brought Alex home, but weeks later he disappeared again.
06:50This time for over two months.
06:53And when you told the police he was missing, how did the police respond?
06:57They did respond.
06:57They asked a lot of questions.
06:59They asked him where he frequents.
07:01They said they would look around those areas.
07:03Police issued a missing persons alert.
07:05But when Alex was found in Orillia, an hour north of Toronto,
07:08it was in what's called a trap house where illegal drugs are sold.
07:13He was with adults.
07:14They were all arrested.
07:16We were shocked.
07:17Angry.
07:19How does a 14-year-old boy get to Orillia?
07:23I had no ID, no money.
07:25So you would think that, you know, someone had to lure him there or take him there.
07:30Cameron brought him home again.
07:32Got him back into school.
07:33But while he was on house arrest, he disappeared again.
07:38He was missing for 11 months.
07:4211 months?
07:44Yeah.
07:44In grade 9?
07:46Yeah.
07:47I can't imagine.
07:50My family, we were at a dead end, right?
07:54We didn't know where to go.
07:55Shayna McCullough met with officers in Durham Region, east of Toronto,
07:59home to many of the missing boys.
08:01Her message?
08:02The black community is watching and these parents need answers.
08:06I just want to know why I'm not seeing our boys being located faster
08:11and not spending 10 months in the possession of human traffickers,
08:17essentially, or criminal organizations.
08:18Like, how does that relate to these boys actually coming home?
08:22All five boys were eventually found.
08:24As for Cameron's son, he was arrested in Sarnia, more than 300 kilometers from his home.
08:30Alex was tasered while running out of this house.
08:33Police later turned up cash, drugs, and a loaded handgun.
08:37You said when you, initially when you hung up from the phone call with the police,
08:41you said you were angry.
08:43Who were you angry at?
08:44I was angry at the people that had my son.
08:48The people that I consider predators.
08:50We have learned more about where the luring may lead.
08:54A YouTube video surfaced last year, glamorizing and normalizing
08:58selling drugs in a trap house in Sarnia.
09:01Throw the camera with the dogs here, man.
09:04This may be appealing to some young kids, but for the men in this video,
09:08it was anything but.
09:09After the video was posted, four men were arrested and charged by the Sarnia police.
09:15They are children.
09:16They are 13, 14, 15, going on 16.
09:21They are children.
09:22The common thread between these boys is that they were all found in remote towns,
09:28such as Thunder Bay, Aurelia, Sarnia.
09:32And this doesn't happen overnight, right?
09:35They work on these children.
09:36They target them.
09:37They look for children that they feel are more vulnerable,
09:39who are more likely to follow them.
09:41And they groomed them into the drug trade.
09:46Nothing new that kids get murdered because gangs, right?
09:50Camille Dundas is the founder of the online magazine Buy Blacks.
09:53She says suburbs are no longer a safe haven to keep kids away from gang influence.
09:58I think what it is for us is the devil is at our door now, okay?
10:04O'Shea Stewart remembers when the devil was at his door, he was also influenced by gangs.
10:09Now he's a specialized school counselor in the GTA, where in 2023,
10:13a quarter of suspended students in the public school board were Black youth.
10:17Do you think that Black kids are more vulnerable?
10:21Definitely.
10:21I would say anybody in a marginalized community is more vulnerable, right?
10:25I've had the chance to work with, you know, kids outside of being Black,
10:29and I've seen how they get sucked into the life too as well.
10:32Explain to me what the attraction is like for a young man who sees the money,
10:38who sees the influence, who sees the power that you can get if you run with these gangs.
10:42Well, it's hard, right?
10:43You want to belong.
10:45You want to belong somewhere.
10:46You want to be respected.
10:49And unfortunately, I mean, if you're not a basketball player, an athlete,
10:55or, you know, the cool guy, it's kind of easy to place yourself within these circles.
11:01Stewart says when the gangs take the boys out of town to sell their drugs,
11:05it's called going OT.
11:06And what was the temptation, especially for 14, 15-year-old boys to go OT,
11:12to go to another town and start selling drugs for somebody?
11:15The more money you make defines how much of, I guess, a man you are, apparently.
11:21Like, money is always a cool thing.
11:23So masculinity ends up being a bit of a driving force in all this?
11:26For sure.
11:27You see it in social media, right?
11:29If you're not making this amount of money, then you're a nobody.
11:32So money almost builds confidence.
11:35The Fifth Estate spoke with several families of boys that have gone OT
11:38to learn how the recruiting process works.
11:41We've learned that some boys are told about an opportunity from a friend
11:45or are approached directly by an older male.
11:47Some boys were told they can make big money, $10,000 to $30,000 within a couple of weeks.
11:54One source told us boys are instructed to pack plastic bags for drugs, rubber bands for cash.
12:00They're sent to a meeting spot, then transported to a trap house.
12:04And once they're recruited, I mean, is it your feeling that it's almost going to be a pretty much direct
12:10pipeline to prison?
12:13Usually, yeah, to prison or to death, right?
12:16There's no other positive options, right?
12:20Coming up, we follow one father's desperate search to find his son traveling from Toronto to Thunder Bay.
12:27I don't know what I'm doing and I'm just guessing to see if I see him somewhere if I'm going
12:31to find him
12:31before the police do or before something happens to him.
12:42Imagine this.
12:44A young teenager boards a bus for a one-way trip from Toronto to Thunder Bay, a city he doesn't
12:49know.
12:50The trip takes about 24 hours.
12:52It's a milk run with stops in Sudbury and the Sioux.
12:55These boys are enticed with the prospect of making quick cash, but it comes at a steep personal price.
13:03Most don't know where they'll be staying, the risks they'll be taking, or when they'll make it back home.
13:08You're bringing kids from Ajax and Pickering and Whippy and bringing them to Thunder Bay to sell drugs.
13:15I'm at a high school to meet a father we're calling Marcus.
13:18We're concealing his identity and altering his voice to protect his family from criminal retribution.
13:23In April 2022, his 16-year-old son went missing.
13:27Tell me about your son.
13:28He's a very caring youth.
13:32He's always been like that.
13:33Very outgoing personality, loving kid.
13:37Tell me about the day your son went missing.
13:40So, it was the week before Easter long weekend.
13:46And I'm pretty sure it was one day we woke up and he was just gone.
13:52Just to a note in his room that said something along the lines like,
13:57Oh, I feel really stressed out and I'm going to spend a few days by my friend's house downtown.
14:04You didn't believe that?
14:05No, I didn't believe it.
14:06Marcus is convinced his son was being groomed by older boys, first to sell stolen goods.
14:13My first concerns were I've seen him with cell phones.
14:18A different cell phone than I had purchased.
14:21And I was like, where's this phone?
14:24Who bought you this?
14:25Something else is going on.
14:27And then come later I found out that they were actually fake phones that they were selling.
14:33And this is what I mean by starting somewhere and then elevating these youth up the ladder to do other
14:40things.
14:41So, Marcus called the Durham Regional Police.
14:44They were able to trace his son's last cell phone signal to Thunder Bay.
14:48When we heard that Thursday evening, we basically decided that we're going to Thunder Bay.
14:54You're wading right into what could be a pretty dangerous situation.
14:58Were you concerned about your own safety?
15:00I had concerns.
15:01I wasn't naive into the situation.
15:04I kind of know how to maneuver in the streets.
15:08The next morning, Marcus and his wife drove 16 hours.
15:11The same 1,400-kilometer route they believed their son had taken just days earlier.
15:17I pretty much thought in my head, these guys aren't that smart.
15:20They ain't smarter than me.
15:21And I'm going to be able to figure it out and find it.
15:25Thunder Bay, long known as a strategic shipping and rail hub on the shore of Lake Superior.
15:31Also known now as a major illegal drug hub, Thunder Bay Police say members of as many as 20 street
15:38gangs from the Toronto area are selling drugs in town.
15:42It's a lucrative market where drugs can be sold at peak profits.
15:47We're a long way from Toronto here.
15:50Long way.
15:52Yeah.
15:52Constable Jeff Saunders is the main officer handling missing persons cases for the Thunder Bay Police.
15:57I'm a one-man person with two other guys that are linked to me right now.
16:02We go out and we knock on doors.
16:0425 years on the force, Saunders has seen a spike in boys from the GTA brought here.
16:10He met with Marcus when he came looking for his son.
16:13I think it was 2022 when we first started seeing the missing youth coming from the Toronto area.
16:20When a family contacts you, he says, look, we're coming to town, we believe our son is in your community,
16:28we need your help.
16:29Yep.
16:29What do you do?
16:30If a family has travelled 16 hours to come up here, we're going to help them.
16:35I would do the same thing in a heartbeat.
16:38Saunders says when missing posters go up and parents and police start knocking on doors, kids often surface.
16:44When you put the heat on these different areas, the drug dealers, they don't want that.
16:49The key then is if you create enough heat around this kid that it's a strong likelihood that they may
16:56say you're becoming more trouble than anything.
17:00Absolutely.
17:01But I don't think they really know what they're getting into when they come up here.
17:05What they're getting into is a dangerous game.
17:08Take a look.
17:08This is security footage of a shootout in a Thunder Bay parking lot back in 2023.
17:14A 20-year-old Toronto man is firing his pistol at two boys and a woman.
17:19The boys from Toronto, just 15 and 16 years old.
17:23I think they're using these kids because of their age, basically.
17:27They're underage.
17:28They know that if they get caught with the drugs, it's not going to be as steep as if it's
17:33an adult, right?
17:34Do you think it's possible that there's a kid from the GTA in this building?
17:38Absolutely.
17:39This particular building, there's been a couple of youth from the GTA found or at least seen on the video
17:48surveillance cameras here.
17:49At some point.
17:50The boys are kept out of sight, behind closed doors.
17:53Often the only people who see them are the ones buying drugs.
17:57Have you ever bought drugs from these teenagers here?
18:00I don't know the ages, but yes, I've bought.
18:04I'm not going to admit the truth.
18:05I'm not going to lie.
18:06Some of them are barely teenagers.
18:08Barely teenagers.
18:09What have you seen?
18:10You don't believe in mythology, but.
18:12No, well, try me.
18:13What do you think when you see these teenagers from the Toronto area there?
18:16I try to help them.
18:17I try to tell them, look, kid, you know what?
18:18What do you think is going to happen by the time you're 20?
18:20Are you going to be dead in jail for the rest of your life?
18:21Are you going to be dead in jail for the rest of your life?
18:22Or are you going to have to cancel somebody?
18:24No, no, I'm talking.
18:25No, no, you're not.
18:26What do these kids do?
18:26They don't even make money.
18:28They go to the bank every hour.
18:29They send some guy somewhere.
18:30They never catch money every hour.
18:321,000 bucks, 1,000 bucks, 1,000 bucks.
18:34These kids aren't even eating.
18:35They're starving.
18:35They make 50,000 bucks so they get dope and they can't eat.
18:37Because they all go back to the boss because they're terrified.
18:41During our investigation, we met Jackie Livingston, a community housing manager.
18:45She sees boys from the GTA being hidden in the apartments she manages.
18:50If a resident has a drug debt, she says the gangs take over their homes,
18:54then turn them into trap houses where the boys work.
18:57As soon as those kids are gone, more will come in.
19:00That's the way this whole thing works.
19:03And there's a real hierarchy in it.
19:04I don't know how we stop it.
19:05We know that they're not from here.
19:07The little ones or the younger ones are pretty quiet most of the time.
19:12They're just trying to, I think, stay under the radar.
19:17As we investigate this story, the term trap house has come up time and time again.
19:22And that's a property that's used by the teens to sell drugs.
19:26Now we've heard about them, but we've never seen one.
19:28We've been given access to this property.
19:31It used to be a family dwelling taken over by drug gangs.
19:36So for the glamorous life promised to the teens, this is where they end up.
19:43Days prior, this was a den for dealers.
19:46This sign, T-Bay Hustler 807, graffiti glorifying this town's area code.
19:52Drug paraphernalia scattered on tables.
19:55Soiled mattresses pushed up against walls.
19:58Remnants of a family's shattered life are everywhere.
20:02We're told a family of four once lived here, but the parents got hooked on fentanyl.
20:07And eventually their two children, both under 12, were taken away.
20:11Holy moly.
20:14Thunder Bay has the highest per capita rate of opioid overdose deaths in Ontario.
20:20It's now seven times the provincial average.
20:22In 2024, 80 people died.
20:25And that's why it's such a target for Toronto drug gangs.
20:28A toxic mix of money, drugs, and death.
20:32Brooklyn?
20:34Is that you?
20:36What's up, bud?
20:37As we were chatting with Livingston, an emergency unfolds before our eyes.
20:42Someone has overdosed in the building next door.
20:44So Livingston grabs Narcan inhalers, which can reverse the effects of an overdose.
20:49And then we run.
20:55Hey, you okay? You alright?
21:00We want to make sure you're okay.
21:02This is the world these teenage boys have been dropped into.
21:06Back from the dead, the lucky man moves on.
21:09And that's when I spot a poster of another missing boy from the GTA.
21:13Constable Saunders tells me he was lucky too.
21:16He was found.
21:18You look at him and he's just a kid.
21:22Just a kid.
21:23Well, here's the good news.
21:24He's been found.
21:25Yeah.
21:28Do you see this as human trafficking?
21:30I do.
21:31Honestly, I do.
21:32Because they're working, selling, distributing drugs.
21:38And they're underage.
21:40They have no idea, really, of the repercussions other than whatever lifestyle they've been promised by these different people that
21:49are bringing them up here.
21:50Jeremy Pearson is Thunder Bay's deputy chief of police.
21:54He says the boys are at the bottom of the gang hierarchy, but are being asked to take the greatest
21:59risks.
21:59There are questions to be asked about how youth become involved in crime.
22:08Is there a draw?
22:09Is there a coercion?
22:11Is there an exploitation?
22:13The families we've spoken to say that they came up here because it's an act of desperation.
22:18Their frustration is, why are we doing this?
22:21Why aren't the police finding our kids?
22:23Do you understand that frustration?
22:24I don't discredit the feelings of families.
22:28They are frustrated.
22:29They are concerned.
22:31They're scared, quite frankly.
22:33The deputy chief says the boys are often scared, too.
22:36Staying hidden for them is staying safe.
22:39There's a tremendous amount of fear attached to this lifestyle.
22:44There's a tremendous amount of intimidation that goes with the violence, that goes with the guns, that goes with the
22:48money and power.
22:49What it takes to get someone who is in that place safe enough, that they feel safe enough, to disclose
22:58what's really happening.
22:59It's a monumental challenge.
23:02We're talking about essentially victims of human trafficking.
23:04Yeah.
23:05Which is why Marcus was racing to find his son, knowing it wouldn't be easy.
23:09They know they can't be seen outside.
23:11They don't go outside.
23:13Period.
23:13They don't go to pick food up.
23:15They don't go to restaurants.
23:16They don't travel in Ubers.
23:17They don't take cab rides.
23:19They don't go on the bus.
23:20They don't go outside.
23:22So this is what I found out the hard way.
23:24And then Marcus caught a break, following a food delivery man into an apartment known for drug dealing.
23:30And then I heard a voice in the back of the apartment saying, I seen your son.
23:34I said, buddy, I'm not trying to bring no heat to your spot.
23:37I just need to find my son before the police find my son, before something bad happens to him.
23:41And he told me in strength, he goes, man, your son doesn't know how lucky he has to have a
23:46dad that came out here to look for him like that.
23:50That's right.
23:51Can you take a break for us?
23:53Yeah.
24:03The stakes of that search, now three years on, still weigh on him.
24:08Marcus knew in that moment he was close to either finding his son or maybe losing him forever.
24:12I said, just give me my son back and that's it.
24:15Drop him off somewhere.
24:16Let me go pick him up.
24:17I don't even need to see you.
24:18I don't need to see anything.
24:20Right?
24:20Acting on a hunch, Marcus headed to the Thunder Bay bus station, where the overnight run to Toronto would soon
24:26be leaving.
24:27Then he saw his son getting out of a car.
24:29So, he walks to the door.
24:32He gets, like, he's almost going to pull the door open.
24:34And I walk around the corner, I'm like, what's up?
24:37And he's like, Dad, I didn't know you were here.
24:41And I go, what did you think?
24:43And then he gave me a big hug.
24:47How did your son get involved with this network?
24:49That I do not know.
24:50That's what he's not willing to share, right?
24:53No matter how many times I ask him.
24:55Silence is their key to survival.
24:57The boys' role is to serve the gangs, not sell them out.
25:01Don't say anything.
25:02Keep your mouth closed.
25:03No problem.
25:03We're going to take care of you.
25:05You're going to make all this money.
25:06You're not going to get caught.
25:07This is the dream, the pipe dream that they sell them.
25:09Coming up, we travel to Northern Ontario,
25:11where boys are being moved into First Nations reserves
25:14and deeper into danger.
25:16How in the world did they even get here?
25:18Yeah.
25:19They don't even have vehicles when they're here,
25:21so they're dropped off by somebody.
25:34Brampton, Ontario is one of Canada's fastest-growing cities.
25:38More than 800,000 residents, with 80% of the population racialized,
25:43primarily South Asian and black.
25:45It's also a target for gangs grooming boys,
25:49luring them into dangerous territory.
25:51O'Shea Stewart, the school youth worker,
25:54says four of his students have died after going OT.
25:57He contacted us after learning another student from Brampton
26:00and just 15 years old had been arrested in Northern Ontario,
26:04charged with second-degree murder.
26:07It was tough, and I didn't know how to even support, you know,
26:11the family when it came to a situation like that.
26:14I had two feelings about it.
26:16It was like, okay, well, it wasn't a call of a student ending up dead.
26:20It was a call of a student, you know, going to jail.
26:24And it's sad that I have to kind of pick between the both, death or jail.
26:31The shooting took place in Ganugaming First Nation,
26:34an Anishinaabe community in Northern Ontario.
26:36It's a 12-hour drive north on the Trans-Canada Highway from Brampton.
26:41A long trip for a 15-year-old.
26:43He was arrested with an 18-year-old also from Brampton.
26:47I do see a lot of the youth pairing with older youth.
26:51It seems to be common.
26:52It's a thing that we see.
26:53Someone is obviously getting them out there.
26:56So we headed to Ganugaming looking for answers.
26:59We flew into Thunder Bay and still had another three-and-a-half-hour drive
27:03to get to the reserve.
27:05It's a small community, about 200 residents.
27:08But if there's money to be made, gangs will go this far to set up a trap house.
27:13Sherry Taylor is the chief of the Ganugaming First Nation.
27:16She says her community is being crippled by a crisis of gangs, guns,
27:21and a steady flow of illicit drugs.
27:23And that crisis came to a head with the boys from Brampton getting into a gunfight at a trap house.
27:29See that home that's boarded up?
27:30That's the home they found them.
27:32The green one over there?
27:33That little house, yeah.
27:35We don't have all the details about what happened that night,
27:38but here's what we've been able to determine.
27:40It's believed the teenagers from Brampton were using this house to sell drugs.
27:45That's when they were approached by two men from the community.
27:47A dispute ensued, shots rang out.
27:51One man was killed, the other badly wounded.
27:54And that's when the boys from Brampton ran for their lives.
27:58Police told residents to shelter in place while searching for the two suspects.
28:02Chief Taylor then declared a state of emergency.
28:05We're looking for more supports, boots on the ground, more police, police presence.
28:10You know how big my community is. I have maybe 90 homes in the community.
28:17We all know each other.
28:18And yet I can sit here and tell and say to my community,
28:23I can't, I don't know if I can keep you safe when that happened.
28:28And how am I, as a leader, that's my job.
28:32And how are you feeling today about that?
28:41Sorry.
28:43Martha Taylor lives next door to where the shooting took place.
28:47She's seen young boys operating out of that house for months.
28:51Too much, way too much.
28:54I reported, called the cops, took license plate numbers.
29:00Nothing ever happened.
29:02And what's been going on over there?
29:04People going in and out. Young kids.
29:07Like 12, 13, 14 year old.
29:11Not only from this reserve, but from the other reserve too.
29:16Victor Chappies is an elder in Ganugaming.
29:19His nephew was killed in the shootout.
29:21He wonders why police didn't intervene sooner.
29:24We're not the big picture in the police eyes.
29:27These kids that come in, they're not really high priority to get them off our reserve.
29:35Right.
29:35Because of the bigger picture.
29:37What do you think about the fact that these, these boys, these teenagers who came here,
29:43one was 15, one was 18 years old, they're just, they're just kids.
29:46They come here and they see money.
29:50They don't see us as people.
29:53They're just a way, a way for them to make money.
30:00After a two day search, the teenagers were found and arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police.
30:05Unofficial images then surfaced on X, formerly Twitter.
30:09We tried to contact the mother of the 15 year old boy to understand how he ended up here.
30:14She didn't respond.
30:16So we went to track down the man who survived the shooting.
30:19We were told he was recovering from multiple gunshot wounds in a Thunder Bay hotel.
30:24So we went there and waited for hours.
30:28Until a man in a wheelchair showed up in the lobby.
30:31His name is Earl Taylor.
30:34What did you know about these, these kids?
30:36I just know that they're selling drugs, that's all.
30:39What do you think of that?
30:41I think it's not cool for them to come all the way over here, to sell their drugs over here.
30:47Taylor says the boys were selling drugs to his sister and his nephew.
30:50And if the police wouldn't stop them from dealing on the reserve, he would.
30:55You were shot in your leg, were you shot anywhere else?
30:57Yeah, in my stomach, yeah.
30:59How many times were you shot?
31:02Five times with a handgun and once with a 12 gauge.
31:08You're lucky to be alive.
31:10Yeah, I am, I know.
31:14Yeah, I know, I am.
31:17Tensions had been mounting on the reserve for months.
31:19Chief Taylor shared this picture from the summer.
31:22Boys driven in, dropped off to sell drugs and left to fend for themselves.
31:27It's very concerning that they're getting involved with this at a very so young of an age.
31:35They're babies practically.
31:39And they're getting involved in a world that has, you know, no empathy for people.
31:48The Fifth Estate has learned in the past three years, six black teen boys have been arrested with adults for
31:55gun and drug crimes on First Nations reserves.
31:57We reached out to the OPP and the Anishinabek Police Service who patrolled Northern Ontario's First Nations communities.
32:04They acknowledged drugs are being trafficked north from the GTA.
32:08The OPP said youth from marginalized communities are at a heightened risk of being targeted and recruited by criminal networks.
32:16But neither police service identified a specific solution to stop gangs from using boys to peddle their drugs.
32:24O'Shea Stewart's 15-year-old student is now in a youth detention centre in Ontario awaiting a hearing.
32:30The 18-year-old he was with is facing the possibility of 10 to 25 years in prison.
32:36I kind of seen it going that way.
32:38I didn't want it to go that way, but just based off of, you know, some of the things that,
32:43you know, he was getting into.
32:46I kind of knew, okay, like, this is where we're gonna, we're gonna go, right?
32:49It seems to be just a regular, like, occurrence.
32:56When we come back, rapper Biz Loke about lessons learned after a life of crime that began when he was
33:02a teen.
33:03Do you have regrets about the decisions you made?
33:06One thousand percent. One thousand percent.
33:08I have bare dead homies tatted all over my skin.
33:11They have nothing to show for the life that they lived.
33:13Is this something that the kids then wanted to chase after?
33:26This is Ontario's largest youth jail, the Roy McMurtry Centre in Brampton, known simply as The Roy.
33:32Boys between the ages of 12 to 17 are detained here.
33:36Management says that includes a significant number of gang-affiliated youth.
33:41A report by the Federal Justice Department says that gang label often leads to poorer treatment and poorer outcomes for
33:48kids in custody.
33:49What started you down the path to even enter the criminal?
33:53Anna Goldlist has 15 years experience as a criminal defence lawyer, but she began her journey in the justice system
33:59as a homeless drug addict behind bars.
34:02I was 16 years old with no one to bail me out.
34:06And so I ended up at the Vanier Correction Centre where I spent four days in solitary confinement.
34:12What's the bulk of your clientele now?
34:15Violence, drug trafficking and firearms offences.
34:18It was really the trilogy that I'm focused on.
34:21And why?
34:23It's the world I was in for so long.
34:25It's the world that I understand.
34:25And if I can help give someone else a second chance, then they can do something better with themselves the
34:32way that I've proven able to do with my own life.
34:35Goldlist often gets the call when boys are arrested.
34:38She says some get her number from the gangs who recruited them.
34:42I mean this morning alone I got calls from Thunder Bay, North Bay and Sarnia.
34:46And it's 11 o'clock in the morning.
34:48Goldlist says when the boys first appear in court, a harsh reality sets in.
34:53We hear some of the most disgusting things in bail hearings.
34:55I've had a justice of the peace say we're tired of you people coming to our city to sell drugs.
35:01What impact does that have for these kids?
35:03Well they hear that and it's horrific.
35:06It's obviously racist.
35:07It's horrific.
35:09And they think this is how I'm going to be treated by the justice system.
35:12Because now they're looked at as expendable in the justice system as they are in the drug network.
35:17One high profile bust showed how the boys are routinely exploited.
35:21In 2020, Toronto police made more than 100 arrests, cracking down on a Toronto street gang called the Eglinton West
35:27Crips.
35:28These networks are alleged to have trafficked large quantities of narcotics, specifically cocaine and fentanyl to many communities outside the
35:37greater Toronto area as far away as Thunder Bay.
35:41One of the high ranking members of the gang, Vito Bailey Ricketts was sentenced to 13 years in custody.
35:47In her sentencing, the judge noted Ricketts had access to a steady supply of loyal youths he could use as
35:54mules to bring his drugs north.
35:56She also cited youth were recruited to set up and operate his trap houses.
36:09Also arrested in that sweep, Brian Harrington, known as Bizlok, seen here in a profile by Toronto rappers.
36:16He was sentenced to 10 years on drug and weapons charges.
36:20He posted this music video from jail.
36:23He said, I just want to touch the road again.
36:26I'm by myself, I'm all alone again.
36:29He's serving his sentence at the Atlantic Institution in Ranoose, New Brunswick.
36:34He agreed to speak to the Fifth Estate about his own path to prison.
36:38I was reading an interview with you where you referred to yourself at one point as a good kid that
36:43turned evil.
36:44Tell us when things took a turn for you.
37:11What age were you at that point?
37:14What age were you at that point?
37:1613, 14.
37:18So what do you say about that now?
37:20The fact that you're running with a gang that was using these young kids to help move drugs?
37:25Honestly, that is my call cues and I don't feel comfortable even responding to that.
37:32Don't you think, and you've posted videos from your jail cell,
37:35don't you think you have also contributed that to that glamorizing of the gangster life?
37:421,000%.
37:441,000%.
37:451,000%.
37:45And this is exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing right now.
37:48To let them know that there is another way.
37:50What do you say to those boys who think that they have to earn their stripes by doing this, by
37:55spending time in youth detention?
37:58I think that's bullshit.
38:00I think that's bullshit.
38:00You don't go to jail to prove yourself.
38:03No.
38:03I know that this is a path of destruction and it seldom ends well.
38:11Do you have regrets about the decisions you made?
38:161,000%.
38:171,000%.
38:18I have bare dead homies tatted all over my skin.
38:21They have nothing to show for the life that they lived.
38:24They have nothing to show for this gang shit that we all represented.
38:28You know, their moms couldn't even afford their funerals.
38:33Is this something that the kids then wanted to chase after?
38:36This is nothing to be proud of.
38:39I'm proud that I'm still alive.
38:42I'm not proud that I'm involved in this life.
38:46Harrington's story highlights the socioeconomic challenges for boys looking for opportunities when options are limited.
38:53Challenges that are still present today.
38:56This is a job line for a fast food restaurant in Oshawa, posted on Reddit in 2024.
39:02Hundreds of young people looking for work.
39:04The national unemployment rate for black boys is 26%, more than twice that of non-racialized boys.
39:12If you've got a 15 or 16 year old guy that can't even get a job out of Tim Hortons,
39:16can't get a job, you know, anywhere, and he's being offered $500 a day, that seems like a lot of
39:22money for him.
39:23Just how lucrative is this business in Ontario?
39:26I had a client once who told me that he had traps throughout Sarnia and Windsor and London that were
39:33each turning a profit of $80,000 a day.
39:37Wow.
39:37But the father we're calling Marcus, who rescued his son from a trap house in Thunder Bay, says the boys
39:43are victims, exploited by knowing adults.
39:47Don't use my kid to do your dirty work, right?
39:50Do it yourself.
39:51You're an adult.
39:51If they see this, I have a message for them.
39:54You guys are cowards.
39:57Using people's children to do your own dirty work.
40:00You want to sell drugs.
40:01You want to do this.
40:02You're a man.
40:03You know the consequences.
40:04You know the laws.
40:05You know what it is.
40:06Do it yourself.
40:07As for Shana McCullough, who's been advocating to find Ontario's missing boys, her message is for police.
40:14I think that anybody who's caught in a room with drugs and weapons with a 15, 14-year-old boy
40:20should be charged with human trafficking.
40:23And there should be some type of programs in place that treat these boys like victims and not as criminals.
40:34We contacted the Toronto Police Service to ask why adults aren't being charged with human trafficking when they're arrested with
40:41minors.
40:42They said to lay a human trafficking charge, police must have evidence that an adult exercised control, direction or influence
40:50over the youth for the purpose of exploitation.
40:53And that means the boys would have to testify in court against the gang leaders.
40:57Goldless suggests government should redirect the money spent to incarcerate kids and invest in them instead.
41:05And you provided proper education, employment training, addressed intergenerational trauma.
41:12If you put basketball courts back into community housing, if you restarted breakfast programs so the kids weren't going to
41:19school hungry.
41:20If you set a kid up before the age of 12, would you eradicate it completely?
41:26I don't think so.
41:27But I think you would see a significant dent.
41:31O'Shea Stewart agrees the boys need more resources and better options.
41:36So he's teamed up with childhood friends, artist and stylist Charlie Prince, and musician and producer Rich Kid to found
41:43the Our Way Group.
41:45They help the community get funding to build this basketball court.
41:49Even though we have this basketball court here, it still needs to just be more for the youth.
41:54Like they're still missing out.
41:55They're all focused on the money but they're forgetting the things that come along with that.
41:59The personal connections, the brotherhood, the respect, just the moral compass.
42:04All three of these men went OT.
42:06Two of them were in detention before they turned things around.
42:10Today they're running businesses and want to be the positive role models they feel these boys need.
42:15We've seen a fork in the road and then we made the right decision.
42:18I think we were smart enough to learn from the mistakes of the people that we've seen in those predicaments.
42:23And I think that was like a key to some of our success.
42:28We can't just grow up, have pride in this neighborhood, scream it out and not like come back and do
42:33something that's going to actually like positively impact people that were coming in the same kind of lineage as us.
42:41Some kids in here, they might want to be, who knows, lawyers and stuff.
42:44They might want to go into like more intense studies.
42:48Yo, there's somebody going through this right now.
42:50Yeah.
42:50Yeah.
42:51You know, and like that's what gets me hot.
42:53Yeah.
42:53Like I can't believe this is still happening.
42:55The doings of what you do today is almost undoing the trauma of the past, you know.
43:01We've been in their place, but we're here to live.
43:04So how many of, you know, their OGs can say that?
43:20I'm Joanna Rumaliotis.
43:21Next week on The Fifth Estate, we're in Sarajevo on the trail of a young Canadian at the centre of
43:27an international police investigation.
43:29That's the man that we are looking for.
43:33He's accused of stealing tens of millions in cryptocurrency in a sophisticated digital scheme that has left some programming experts
43:41in awe.
43:41To be conducting these types of transactions, you have to be very skilled.
43:46And prosecutors determined to prove he's not above the law.
43:51And so the hunt is on for the math whiz from Hamilton, Ontario.
43:55He went on to like be a very evil genius in that way.
43:59Believed to be hiding here in Bosnia.
44:02He has two or three fake names.
44:04We go to his last known address, track down family members here and in Canada.
44:10Do you think your son should turn himself in?
44:12He's a fugitive, but for how much longer?
44:15I think it's nothing short of extraordinary that this individual has been in hiding for as long as he has.
44:20Will the alleged crypto culprit turn himself in or stay on the run?
44:25Wire fraud, extortion, money laundering, very serious criminal charges.
44:29That's next week on The Fifth Estate.
44:47Oh.
44:55To be continued in.
45:06Oh, sorry.
45:10Bye!
45:10Bye!
45:10The Fifth Estate
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