Wow I should be offended. 
But I'm not. The statement though seems to fly in the face of gun violence throughout Canada. Cops get shot by people who arent supposed to own a handgun. Armed criminals dont think twice at doing a driveby in Toronto or elsewhere. The sad truth is that where there are criminals there will be violence. Then throw in upstanding citizens that have reached their breaking point. Kids that make bad decisions whether its on the roadway or killing one of their fellows for no reason or for that age old reason - love.
T6, I don't think Canadians are less violent than USA; also, guns seem to be increasingly available on the Canadian black market. You have a larger population and that's perhaps the factor that may skewer perception. Just as friends of mine living on Vancouver Island think Ontario is the root-of-all-evil in Canada, but again, we are the most populous province.
I don't follow the gun debate, I've never even actually held a gun ( if I'm walking alone in the dark, I'll have my large set of keys wedged between the fingers of my fisted hand at all times) but people motivated by violence will find whatever method or tool is available or familiar. As an experiment, I keyed "knife-stabbing" and "Manitoba" into a "Google Alert" and was amazed at the number of daily hits I got ( Last year, someone had mentioned that Manitoba was the 'violent knifing province of Canada' and I'd been testing that theory.)
As for Trenton and Belleville areas dwelling in an evil Stephen King-like vortex, people were saying the same thing about the Woodstock area last spring: the co-accused and the victim, Victoria Stafford, being from the same town; the hillbilly heroin oxy-contin factor, methadone clinics, the Bandito trial going on at the same time and so on and so forth--you could almost hear the banjos playing.
It seems to me Ontario is more violent this past year-- thinking especially of some very bizarre cases and recent police officer killings--but statistics are needed to confirm that--guessing that socio-economic factors, drugs and desperation fuel violence--I'm no criminologist, though.
