Toronto city councillor Josh Matlow says “everything is on the table” when it comes to street festival safety following a reckless exchange of gunfire that claimed two lives and left several injured at the Salsa on St. Clair festival on Saturday night.
Matlow, who represents Ward 12 (Toronto–St. Paul’s) where the gun fight occurred, called the incident “incredibly surreal” but added in an interview with Breakfast Television on Monday that a sobering new reality has also set in — public safety at street festivals must be re-examined.
Matlow says he’s been flooded with messages from angry and frightened constituents and he’s taking all of their suggestions seriously.
“The community is asking for a number of options to be reviewed and what I’ve told them is that everything will be on the table,” he stressed. “We need to be honest about this, like what can we do to make this festival safer? But also what can we learn from this incident to make sure that all gatherings in our city are as safe as they possibly can (be).”
When it comes specifically to the Salsa on St. Clair festival, Matlow says “some have suggested shutting it down completely, some have suggested moving it to a more contained area like a park, where maybe there can be better screening.
“Some have suggested limiting the hours to daytime because there has been a suggestion that more problems occur as we get into the evening hours and my response has been of course everything needs to be on the table.”
He also admitted that it will be challenging to find the right balance when it comes to protecting the public, and making sure the free and fun spirit of Toronto’s summer events isn’t eviscerated.
“We need to make sure that (people) are as safe as possible and that public safety is always a top priority, but also ensure that we can still live in a free society where we can gather and come together to celebrate culture, sports and community, and that will be the hard work of both government and police together.”
Matlow cited the Lapu-Lapu vehicle-ramming attack that killed 11 killed in Vancouver in 2025 as an incident that precipitated change, with safety measures to prevent similar vehicle attacks.
A bigger challenge, he says, is preventing guns or knives from marring what should be happy celebrations.
“It is far more complex for security or police to be able to predict where somebody might have brought in a weapon, so that is going to be a challenge … but that work has to be done to at least find a way to mitigate it.
“Can government or police ever promise that no one will ever do anything bad? Of course not and that would be an unreasonable expectation. But I think the public is angry, they’re upset, they’re worried, some are incredibly scared, and I think they need to know that every possible human thing that can be done to protect public safety when we gather is being done.”
Heather Hannah, co-chair of Salsa on St. Clair, conceded that open street festivals come with certain inherent risks.
“What happened is one of the unpredictable parts of having an open street festival,” she said. “There’s going to be an examination (by) many different people, councillors, mayors and also people who study safety and as somebody from York University who studies that said today, it’s the nature of a street festival, you want it open, you want it inviting, but that makes it very difficult to control for something like this … that’s the problem with all street festivals no matter where you are.”
Another prominent Toronto street festival, Big on Bloor, is scheduled for this weekend.
Organizers tell CityNews they’re taking extra steps to assure public safety in light of the Salsa on St. Clair violence.
“We’re increasing security and having visible check point areas for evacuation, missing children, theft and general safety presence,” organizers said.
“Our schedule is going unchanged, but due to the increased security and additional visible security booths, it will change our layout, with emphasis of avoiding crowding and easy flow to safe exits.”
‘Everyone was having fun … then boom’: Witnesses recount Salsa on St. Clair chaos
Witnesses to the harrowing scene at Salsa on St. Clair describe the chaos and confusion when gunshots sent thousands stampeding for safety.
“It’s horrible, everyone was having fun, there was just salsa lessons everywhere, and then boom,” one attendee told CityNews.
“Our son lives around the corner, he called us and he said ‘there are people running, shots were fired,’ no one knew what was going on,” another man described. ” But we’ve lived here 33 years, it’s a safe neighbourhood, it’s a wonderful neighbourhood and incidents like this happen all over the world.”
Ksenia Chpak, who works for Breakfast Television, had just finished a dance performance at the festival when she found herself among the panicked hordes.
“I finished my performance and me and my partner, we were on our way to get some food, until we just saw a group of people and we weren’t really sure what was happening,” she recalled. “People were running and my partner said ‘Oh there must be a fight that broke out’ so as we were just walking towards that area all I saw was a lot of cops, then we noticed the paramedics (with a person) on the ground, they were performing CPR, and as I looked to my right hand side beside this chaos there was all these families with kids walking by, people were terrified, at the same time people were confused.”
“I saw people getting carried away, some looked injured. A lot of chaos amid something that should be about dance and family and community and love.”
She now fears for the future of Toronto’s festivals.
“It’s really sad to think that we can’t go out and enjoy these street festivals as a community, as friends, as dancers, I just really hope that it doesn’t impact the festivals in the future.
“I don’t know what safety measures need to take place. But in the moment of course we were all wondering are we going to perform tomorrow? What’s going to happen? And then you think what if I’m on stage when something like this happens, what would we do?”
In the meantime, the investigation into Saturday night’s gunfight remains open.
No arrests have been made.
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