We all miss Jarvis today. His family said a prayer for him and they celebrated the first Thanksgiving dinner without him. His grandmom Delores below made the turkey and everyone including his aunt below Shenelle cooked the fixins. It was a lovely dinner.


We strongly urge the public to please call 1-800-222-TIPS if you know anything about who killed Jarvis. May God bless Jarvis whom we all miss. Clemee Joseph carrying Jarvis's niece continues to thank the public for all your kindness. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

They came to cry for their children, their siblings.

But they also shed a tear for the city while pleading for witnesses to come forward.

About 30 people came to remember Adrian Johnston's 15th birthday at the Scarlett Rd. hydro field north of St. Clair Ave. yesterday.

It was the spot where he was shot dead May 11.

His mother, Stephanie, managed to hold back tears as she spoke publicly for the first time about her son.

Joining her was Clemee Joseph, who came to mark the third month after her son's murder. Jarvis St. Remy, 18, was shot dead May 1 at a nearby Dundas St. bus stop.

Also at the memorial was Prince Young, a rising musician whose only brother, Junior Appiah, 18, was shot dead last Sept. 16 at a basketball court at a Jane St. apartment building, north of Finch Ave.

"My son was viciously murdered on May 11, the day right after Mother's Day, here in this hydro field behind me," Johnston said.

"Adrian would have been 15 (yesterday), but instead of celebrating his birthday, we're mourning his death.

"The sick individual who took Adrian from us is still walking the streets," she said.

"Adrian is not able to do that."

Johnston, who moved to Welland after the murder, said there are people who know who killed her son, and she urged them to call police, because "nobody is coming forward yet.

"If we continuously stay quiet and keep what we know to ourselves, we're enabling these murderers," Johnston said.

"What will happen this September when TAVIS is gone?"

The murders of her son, St. Remy and others in the area sparked a rapid response by Toronto Police with its Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy into 12 Division.

The boost in numbers ends on Labour Day.

"Let's take back our communities and make it safer for our children," Johnston said.

A $750 scholarship in his name was launched at Runnymede Collegiate. Details are available at adrianjohnstonmemorial.com.

"He was a really good kid," she said.

"Always laughing, always smiling."

"If people were fighting, he would turn it into a big joke."

She said she was upset about reports Adrian was a gang member, "because he wasn't.

"Adrian went to two places: The library and his best friend's house," Johnston said.

"He was a 14-year-old kid. What did he do to deserve this?"

Young called the killing of his brother senseless and is calling for people who know anything to call police.

"Everybody is losing their sons and mothers are crying," he said.

Young said it's time to give up the street rule of not talking to police.

Joseph, meanwhile, pleaded for the fourth time since her son was killed, and she said it doesn't get easier with time.

A mother, she said, shouldn't bury her child.

"One mother's pain is every mother's pain," Joseph said.

Anyone with information about any murder is asked to call Toronto Police homicide at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477.

ROB.LAMBERTI@SUNMEDIA.CA

Bloor West Villager: Murdered teen's mom makes emotional plea.

Toronto Sun: Video of Press Conference.

Toronto Star: Grieving Mom breaks silence.

CityNews.ca: Mother of 14-year-old murder victim makes emotional appeal (with video).

(Toronto July 3rd 2009) Little KJ Taiwo may be the youngest activist to urge Mayor David Miller to put an end to the nearly two-week-old city strike, but he has perhaps the most compelling argument of all.

Standing at the intersection of Dundas Street West and Howland Avenue (just west of Scarlett Road) Friday afternoon, just steps away from the bus shelter where Jarvis St. Remy, 18, was gunned down two months ago on May 1, the soft spoken eight-year-old pleaded his case.


"Please open the summer camps and let us end the city strike. We kids have nothing to do - we are roaming around the playgrounds at our apartments," said KJ 'The Kid Reporter,' who resides in the troubled Jane and Wilson area where he said "a lot of teens and grown-ups shoot a lot."




Standing by KJ's side at Friday's monthly Crime Stoppers press conference at the fated intersection, were Clemee Joseph and Amiga Taylor - two women who know best the tragic results of children and youth being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Joseph, clutching a KJ-designed sign that read 'Did You Kill My Son Jarvis?' is St. Remy's mother. Her son's killer is still at large. While she said the police have told her they believe his slaying to be a case of mistaken identity, she still wants nothing more than for someone to step forward and take responsibility for taking the life of her oldest child.

"I have a message for those that killed my son: give yourselves up and turn yourselves in," she asked. "Get a good lawyer and just do it today. Give me the comfort I need."


"It makes me sick; it's absolutely ridiculous. There is no regard for human life anymore," she said.

"If we really want to break the silence...we have to bring to light these tragic stories that these young men (gang members) want to keep in the dark."

While two accused have been charged in her brother's killing, Taylor said that, like with St. Remy's case, issues of silence have plagued his murder case.

"I can't take it anymore; it needs to stop," she said, noting that since her brother's passing, she's taken up the cause as an activist. "We have to find who killed Jarvis."

To that end, St. Remy's family and their supporters have launched several internet portals - Facebook, YouTube and Twitter - where they hope people will see pictures and watch videos of Jarvis and about his case, discuss crime stories and cases, and talk about positive things in the community. She hopes that from those, the missing information that will solve her son's case will come forth.

"Know what is happening, grieve with me and talk to me. But most importantly, talk to the police," she said.

Source: Bloor West (InsideToronto.com)
Our special thanks to Cynthia Reason and Lisa Rainford of Inside Toronto Bloor West newspapers for this outstanding story!!!

Clemee Joseph, whose 18-year-old son Jarvis St. Remy (pictured above) was murdered at a Dundas Street West bus stop last month, went yesterday to the spot where he died to make a public plea. Following is an edited excerpt of her remarks:

The last time I saw Jarvis was at bedtime Thursday, April 30, and everyone had left early for school and work that fateful day. The last time I spoke to him was on the phone from this bus stop at 10:39 p.m. on his way home that I would see him shortly. He never made it home.

On behalf of my late son Jarvis, my family and my only other son Kasim, I begin a monthly appeal at this bus stop throughout the summer months when our teens are out of school to urge Torontonians to turn Jarvis’s killers in, and to address our teenagers to stop the gun violence. I am also appealing to all parents and citizens to support Mayor Miller’s ban on handguns.

Parents: Talk to your children about the dangers of guns and those with friends who carry them. Guns hurt all of us. We are all shot when another citizen is gunned down.

In 12 days, we mark a year of another senseless shooting downtown of two fine young men cut down in the prime of their lives. Dylan Ellis and Martin Oliver were shot and killed June 13, 2009. When will it stop? When?

Finally I want you to call the investigators Mike Carbone and Doug Sansom if you know anything about my son’s killing. But if you don’t want to be a “snitch,” as they call it, stay anonymous and call Toronto CrimeStoppers. Do the right thing. Many of us overlook this system.

I am appealing to all all our young men in Toronto to please put the guns down.

Since Jarvis’s death, a 14-year-old was gunned down a block away from here, a 5- year-old was shot in the chest, a 13-year-old was caught with a loaded gun and another 17-year-old was shot yesterday in Etobicoke.

Thank you and see you next month.

Source: National Post

Put the guns down: Toronto Sun

CTV Video and story

St Lucia Star

This is Kemi and I have a special appeal to make to you today.
Jarvis St. Remy's family continue to appeal to the public on information leading to his killers. It is now 25 days and there is nothing. Someone knows something out there. If you are that person, please remember Jarvis and other people gunned down in this senseless manner. Please do it for our brothers, mothers, aunts, uncles and our children. You can call Crime Stoppers!! Remain anonymous http://222tips.com or Text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637) or call 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) Jarvis's mother Clemee Joseph will be making a brand new appeal in about a week's time. We will notify you all and the family says thanks for your caring!!! Below are two more articles for you to read about the tragedy. We MUST remember every day!!

Inside Toronto
Sansha Joseph his aunt speaks

Shortly after the casket carrying murdered teen Jarvis St. Remy was taken away today, his stepfather stood in the church parking lot with a sombre expression, wondering why.

“There’s no answer,” said Linton Bigby. “We don’t know why this happened. We want to find out why this happened.

“We just want the people who did this to understand they took away a loved one. We want them to turn themselves in (to police), so we can get closure to this.”

Two men fled the bus stop on Dundas St. W. near Scarlett Rd. on May 1, leaving the teen dying in a pool of blood around 10:45 p.m.

The aspiring engineer had a midnight curfew and was leaving his best friend’s home after an evening of watching television.

“We’re not going to get closure on this until they surrender themselves to the police,” Bigby said. “We don’t hate them or anything, we just want to know the reason why.

“What (could) Jarvis have done to them to do something like this to him?” Bigby said. “He was a good kid, man.”

About 200 people followed the casket carrying St. Remy into the storefront Our Lady of Good Counsel Caribbean Catholic Church on College St., west of Ossington Ave.

Mass included songs, a poem reading and a saxophone solo before the casket was brought out for interment at the Sanctuary Park Cemetery on Royal York Rd.

“He was a great guy,” said Taavo Nisbet, 18, a fellow Grade 12 school mate at Western Tech.

“To shoot somebody, I can’t understand why people resort to violence.”

Nisbet said people should work out their differences with words.

“You don’t pull out a gun and shoot someone, especially at someone at that young age,” he said. “We’re just about to graduate.”

Joanna Wilson, 39, thought of St. Remy as her second son. He was with her son Courtney the night of the shooting, she said.

The two boys, who became friends five years ago, usually got together to watch television and play video games, she said.

“They never went out to parties,” Wilson said.

“Jarvis left as usual as he does every night,” she said. “My son was on his way to bed and we heard a bang.”

Wilson said she looked off the balcony and saw Jarvis lying on the ground.

She rushed out and found him “in a pool of blood.”

“It’s hard,” Wilson said outside the church. “Devastating.”

rob.lamberti@sunmedia.ca

Family Spokesperson: Tell Police what you know!! (Toronto Sun)

May 9th 2009
Last night was the hardest for me I cried myself to sleep, I really dont know how I will make it without my son my heart is aching I feel so lost. Thank God I have good friends who always come over or call. When they are around I feel so happy but when they are gone the sadness begins. I miss my son, his killers dont know what they did to me. There is an everlasting pain in my heart. Thank God for my mother......Clemee Johnson, mother of Jarvis St. Remy.

Inside Toronto
Toronto Sun
Toronto Star (Listen to a mother's heart wrenching speech here.)
CTV.ca
CityNews.ca
Greenwich Diva
CBC Radio Canada (French)
Metro News
CBC.ca
CFRB Radio 1010am
Canoe.ca
680News.com
Globe and Mail
640AM Radio
The Province