Blog #2

Halton Ranked Fourth Safest Place to Live in Canada
Maclean’s Magazine

According to Maclean’s magazine, Halton Region is the fourth safest place in Canada and the safest region in the greater Toronto area. They ranked safety levels on the per capita crime rates for murder, sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, break and enters, and auto theft. In relating this article to our course, I questioned why these categories were used to judge what makes a place safe, and what other aspects could be included to describe a safe place?
Those of us who describe our homes as safe places would contribute this factor to such things as being surrounded by people we trust, being in surroundings that are familiar, and for some, living in a house that has safety measures such as alarms and locks. Similarly, most people who say they feel safe in their neighbourhoods feel this way because they ‘know the area well’ or know the people in the area. I believe safety has a lot to do with familiarity. This is evident when many people would find the ‘Jane and Finch’ area to be high risk or dangerous, whereas most people who are familiar with the area, or live there feel perfectly safe there. We fear the unknown and believe what we hear about certain 'dangerous areas', which only perpetuates the fear.
Overall, I feel safety of a place is a very personal judgment to make; one that is proven to differ among each individual, depending on their experiences, or lack there off, of a particular space or place.