The Power of Love: How a Toronto Gang Leader Left His Life of Crime Behind

Marcell Wilson is a former gang leader in Toronto, and now the founder of the One by One Movement, which helps young people get out of gang life and avoid violence. (Chris Warner-Coburn)

A desire for power and a sense of belonging enticed former Toronto gang leader Marcell Wilson into a life of crime at the age of 13.

And it was the love of a woman and her two small daughters that changed his life 15 years later.

The 28-year-old Toronto native had risen through the ranks to become the leader of a large street gang, and went on to work with various organized crime groups in several countries. But despite attaining power, money, and respect on the streets, Mr. Wilson wasn’t happy.

“I had for my entire life longed for a stable, loving family, and belonging,” he told The Epoch Times in an exclusive interview. “I had finally found something that I cared about more than money, reputation, and power. And that was a woman and her two small children.”

Fearful that his often dangerous lifestyle and violent past would affect his new family, he slowly backed out of illegal activity and stepped into the role of family man.

It was a role that was new to Mr. Wilson. His own father was absent for most of his life, leaving him without a relationship he craved.

Mr. Wilson was born in 1978 to a 16-year-old mother. His father, 19, was from Jamaica. The couple had split up while Mr. Wilson was still a baby and he and his mother lived on their own in a community called Swansea Mews, located in what is now known as Toronto Community Housing.

His mother married eight years later and gave birth to another son when Mr. Wilson was nine. He said his stepfather “was good to us” and is still married to his mother. Despite being part of a family that “fared a bit better than most” in the low-income community, Mr. Wilson was still surrounded by bad influences.

He described most Swansea Mews residents as “upstanding, law-abiding, and hard working,” but they were not the people who influenced the community’s youth.

“These were the people who should have been considered community role models but unfortunately, there was a minority of people that lived negative lifestyles … and they dominated the social structure and influenced the community,” Mr. Wilson said, adding that it was this lifestyle that appealed to “young impressionable people going through struggles.”

Being bullied as a child served to exacerbate that negative culture and Mr. Wilson eventually “gave in to the culture of violence and fast money.”

“Once I started fighting, it inflated my ego,” he said. “The people I started to look up to lived a criminal lifestyle. This prompted me to explore outside my community and I excelled, or declined depending on how you look at it.”

Embracing Gang Culture

He lived on the streets on and off between the ages of 13 and 17, when he finally left home for good. He started hanging around in Toronto’s Parkdale (PK) neighbourhood as well as in the downtown core and its surrounding neighbourhoods. He was quickly introduced to a life of petty crime which soon led to gang activities.

His ability to fight and his large size—he was 6’5 and 220 pounds by the time he finished growing—served to further enhance his reputation on the streets.

“Eventually, much older guys who were known gangsters—not necessarily gang bangers—took notice of me,” he said. “One particularly notorious guy from the PK took me under his wing and introduced me to the trafficking game. At the time it was crack cocaine. Doing this for a while gave me access to money and connections.”

Mr. Wilson did attend high school, but spent little time in class. Instead it was a time to “meet with homies, sell drugs, and fight rivals.”

It was during this time that he connected with a group of young people living similar lifestyles and formed a subset of a fast-growing street gang called the Looney Toons Crew. They called their gang the Tiny Toons Crew. It grew quickly as youth from across the country joined. The Tiny Toons Crew then merged with other street gangs to form one large gang known as The Black Cloud.

Despite immersing himself in the gang lifestyle and seeing and doing “terrible things,” Mr. Wilson said he spent years playing a role rather than being who he truly was.

“There were times when I was witness to events that disgusted me, things that gave me anxiety but I couldn’t show it for the fear of excommunication, of tarnishing my reputation, of physical harm or death,” he said. “So I had to wear a mask, I had to mask my pain, my fears, my humanity with alcohol and drugs. Sadly I used greed, intimidation, admiration as fuel to motivate me to be as ruthless and cunning as I could be.”

As a gang leader, Mr. Wilson said he knew and accepted the risk of imprisonment and even death, adding that he was beaten, stabbed, even shot during his 15-year criminal career. Despite knowing deep down that the results of his chosen lifestyle rarely pay off for anyone in the long run, he said a mentality persisted that he was “hard enough, tough enough to end up winning the game.”

“It’s strange why people continue on this path because the life does give participants a glimpse of likely outcomes that most ignore,” he added. “It is very rare to see an old, successful, retired, well-adjusted gangster. I would meet all sorts of broken, washed up, strung out, seriously mentally ill people who had no intentions of becoming that way—people who were once feared gangsters in their time.”

The Black Cloud collapsed in the mid-1990s due to the efforts of law enforcement, but rather than leave his criminal pursuits he opted to work with several smaller groups before moving on to work with organized crime groups in several countries.

“I hated what I had become but I just didn’t think I could do anything else because I was in so deep,” Mr. Wilson explained, adding that he had multiple run-ins with the law but never did significant jail time.

How Love Changed His Life

While he always knew what he was doing was “morally wrong,” it wasn’t until he fell in love for the first time at the age of 28 that he made the decision to change. It was necessary for the welfare of his partner and her young daughters, aged 7 and 4, Mr. Wilson said.

Leaving gang life was not as difficult as he had anticipated. A 2007 bust by law enforcement had left his current organization fractured and Mr. Wilson, who had escaped arrest while out of the country, saw this as the perfect opportunity to make a change. 

“So I spoke to the guys about it,” he said. “And they were like, ‘if you’re gone, you’re gone. Just stay out of the way.’”

After transitioning out of his life of crime, Mr. Wilson dove into his new life. He got a job and enrolled in college. He took on the role of father, going to school sporting events, parent teacher interviews, and helping with homework. 

Despite his new life and love for his family, Mr. Wilson struggled with mental health issues.

“In private, I was dying inside and I now know that I was suffering from PTSD and survivor’s guilt,” he said, adding that his “heavy baggage” caused his relationship to fail after seven years.

“Though things didn’t work out, I will forever be grateful and indebted for that woman’s love and the love of those two little girls,” he said.

Despite a continued struggle with PTSD, Mr. Wilson decided it was time to face his demons. He spoke to many of his old colleagues and friends and did his best to “make good with them.”

“During this healing period I learned to love others and myself again,” he said, adding that he used writing about his life and experiences as an outlet.

His writing endeavours led to speaking engagements at a variety of events and that, in turn, led to working with the Against Violence Extremism Network (AVE) based in the UK.

“At the time AVE was the world’s largest network of ‘formers’: former gangsters, extremists, terrorists,” he said. “We were tasked with assisting  governments and large companies in combating extremism, terrorism, and extreme violence through various methods.”

It was this work that led him to form his own organization known as the One by One Movement. The other members of his organization are also “formers” who, like him, have left lives of violence behind and can relate to the people they work with.

The organization, located in Concord, Ont., helps put in place youth outreach and adult anti-recidivism programming. It also focuses on anti-bullying, gang prevention and exit strategies, and long-term support through mentorship.

When he first started trying to help young men leave gangs, he worried for his personal safety, but said any risk was worth it.

“People tried to kill me for years, and if they’re going to try to kill me now for doing something good, then so be it,” he said. “Thankfully, that hasn’t happened. I’ve actually gotten a lot of positive feedback, even from people who used to be my enemies.”

As a mentor and as a public speaker, Mr. Wilson’s message remains the same: “Change is possible,” but only after one accepts responsibility for his or her actions.

At One by One, that process is called the Internal Realization and Transformation Process.

“It’s the equivalent of a drug addict admitting to themselves that they have a problem,” he said.

The process is a difficult one for gangsters because it can make them feel weak and vulnerable, he said, but it is only when those feelings are embraced that change can truly begin to propel them to a new and better life.