A Toronto man wanted for attempted murder in a stabbing last week is the same man convicted in relation to a high-profile mass shooting in 2012, Global News has learned.

Toronto police said Wednesday they are looking for 31-year-old Shaquan Mesquito in connection with a downtown stabbing on July 11 at Yonge and Dundas streets. Officers found a 30-year-old man who had been stabbed and was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Mesquito is wanted for attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

He is the same man who was convicted in a brazen mass shooting at a block party barbecue outside a public housing complex on Danzig Street on July 16, 2012. He was known as Shaquan “Bam Bam” Mesquito and was 18 at the time of the shooting.

According to police at the time, several members of the Galloway Boys gang attended the community barbeque in Scarborough and “took ownership” of it. Violence erupted after a squabble between members of the Galloway Boys and their traditional rivals from the Malvern area of Toronto.

The chaotic shoutout killed two people — 23-year-old Joshua Yasay and 14-year-old Shyanne Charles — and left 23 people injured.

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The Danzig shooting has been known as one of the worst in Toronto’s history.

The incident was called an “unprecedented” episode of violence by Toronto police, and stunned the country and rocked the community to its core.

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Community moving on two years after Danzig shooting

Back in 2012, Mesquito was initially charged with uttering threats when he was arrested shortly after the shooting in July. Then, in November 2012, the charges were later upgraded to include two counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted murder, 23 counts aggravated assault and one count of reckless discharge of a firearm.

However, in January 2015, Crown lawyers dropped several charges against Mesquito, who was 21 years old at that time.

The Crown withdrew two murder charges, one count of attempted murder, reckless discharge of a firearm and 23 counts of aggravated assault.

Mesquito pleaded guilty to four new, lesser charges including counselling two people “to commit the indictable offence of murder which offence was not committed,” as well as uttering threats and illegal firearm possession.

There was not enough evidence to link Mesquito directly to the murders. In an agreed statement of facts, Mesquito was angered after being kicked out of the party and attempted to recruit others to come back and take revenge. After the shooting, he bragged about it online but investigators found a security video that placed him far away from Danzig.

He was handed a nine-year prison term sentence in 2015, that included time served in pre-trial custody.

Police are asking anyone with information or who sees Mesquito to contact them immediately.

“He is considered dangerous and should not be approached,” police said on Wednesday.

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A traffic complaint led officers to the discovery of a truckload of contraband cigarettes worth millions of dollars, according to Ontario Provincial Police in Frontenac.

OPP say a concerned citizen called police to report a truck barrelling eastbound up Highway 401 near Shannonville Road on Tuesday just before 7 a.m.

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Officers soon tracked the big rig down near the Joyceville Road interchange in Kingston before several issues, including documentation, led them to escort the truck to the Ministry of Transportation scales in Gananoque for further inspection, according to provincial police.

Once they got into the trailer, police and MTO officers discovered 17,820 kilograms of contraband, fine-cut tobacco, which OPP pegged to be worth $4.4 million.

Police say the untaxed tobacco would also have added another $9.1 million to federal and provincial tax coffers.

A 60-year-old man from Puslinch, which borders on Cambridge, has been charged with trafficking contraband tobacco.

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Ontario should rejig its programs meant to support auto businesses through the impact of tariffs and associated economic uncertainty, as the way they’re currently structured is leaving small businesses in the lurch, an advocacy group says in a new report.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business released a report Wednesday based on a survey of 187 small-to-medium-sized businesses in the automotive sector, from parts suppliers to repair shops, and found that tariffs are already having an impact.

Their revenue has declined by 13 per cent, on average, and half of them reported that they have paused or cancelled investments due to uncertainty caused by the Canada-U.S. trade war, which could lead to billions in lost revenue or missed investments, the report said.

“It’s impossible for a business owner to really know what’s going on these days,” Joseph Falzata, co-author of the report and policy analyst with CFIB Ontario, said of the whiplash trade policy news.

“I do this as my full-time job, and it’s always difficult for myself. So you can only imagine a business owner who’s working 50, 60 hours a week trying to keep track of things.”

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Their revenue is taking a hit in part because they are paying higher prices and there is confusion about which products are affected by tariffs, as well as due to costs associated with seeking out new supply chains, Falzata said.

Ontario has programs meant to help shore up businesses in the automotive sector, but while appreciated, they’re missing the mark when it comes to supporting smaller businesses, the CFIB report says.

In its spring budget the provincial government said it was putting $85 million into two programs: the Ontario Automobile Modernization Program to help parts suppliers upgrade equipment and the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network for research and development.

“Though these programs have been created with good intentions, few small businesses plan to use them, and over a third of them are ineligible,” the CFIB report says.

“The programs focus on R&D innovation and large-scale manufacturing, while disregarding the reality that most automotive (small and medium businesses) either cannot afford or are not involved in these processes.”

A new $50-million Ontario Together Trade Fund meant to help businesses develop new markets and find domestic supply chains, requires businesses to show a revenue loss of at least 30 per cent and requires them to put up $200,000 of their own capital, which the report calls “a luxury most (small and medium businesses) cannot afford.”

The government said its programs have already helped hundreds of businesses, with the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network supporting more than 600 small and medium businesses since its inception in 2019 and the Ontario Automotive Modernization Program has supported 215 projects since 2021.

“In the face of unprecedented global economic uncertainty, our government is protecting and building on the progress we have made to champion small businesses in the auto sector and across the economy,” Jennifer Cunliffe, a spokesperson for Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli, wrote in a statement.

The best way to help small businesses would be to lower the small business tax rate from 3.2 per cent to two per cent, the CFIB said. The government lowered the rate from 3.5 per cent in 2020.

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