By Hamutal Dotan

Posted to YouTube today: a public service video created in response to the murder of George Wass, a Parkdale-area man who succumbed to his injuries after being brutally beaten one week ago. The perpetrator is believed to be a serial aggressor who has been targetting mentally ill men in that neighbourhood, and is still at large.

The video was shot and edited by Parkdale resident Paisley Rae—who’d seen Wass around the neighbourhood but didn’t know him personally—with a bit of help from Toronto Police social media relations officer Scott Mills. The two started planning after a community meeting about the string of attacks was held Wednesday, Rae told us by email. “At the meeting, it became really apparent that the information (like a description of the suspect) just wasn’t being condensed into one source for people to access. Scott Mills (who does the majority of the TPS YouTube videos) wasn’t able to make the meeting at PARC [the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre], but knew I’d been tweeting through it and asked me if he brought a camera over, would I shoot a video? We talked, came up with a concept and it all sort of unfolded from there.”
Interestingly, Rae said that the TPS involvement stemmed, in some ways, from the aftermath of the G20: “For nine months, Mills and I have been having one long Twitter conversation about the state of the world we live in and how to make it better, despite our different stances on some things.” Mills encouraged her to make the video in her own way, and shared it with his colleagues once it was done. (It has also been posted to that TPS YouTube channel.) It may be one small glimmer of brightness in what has otherwise been a very dark situation.
[Updated at 6:19 p.m. with Rae interview.]
Hat tip to Goldsbie for spotting the video.