You mean, "Thankfully, Toronto has only seen 11 murders this year. This month has been quiet, which is good."

Number 24 for Metro Vancouver. Man gunned down in Abbotsford.

Abbotsford ≠ Metro Vancouver

Does it really matter when its all interrelated and only half and hour ourtside the limits.?

not really... just being a stickler.

#25 for Metro Vancouver, second one killed in ABBY. Holy Moly.

Abbotsford and Chilliwack are just insane these days. I never would have thought those two cities would have become the hotbed of gang activity they are today. I guess it has to do with the long history and large presence of the Hell's Angels, the Mexican drug war and a lack of decent employment options in the valley.

Disposable income?

no port town

Abbotsford? And then what about Calgary's crime problem?

Thunder Bay is a port and we don't have gang warfare in our streets, and neither does Winnipeg to any large degree. With disposable income comes a market for hard drugs, and with hard drugs comes the gangs that control them. There are probably other factors but that's a big one, especially if you look at how much Alberta has changed in the past decade or so.

Yes, Fuzzy, murders are down in Calgary per capita, but look at what kind of murders are happening now, compared to a decade ago, or two decades. People weren't being executed by gangs in front of suburban strip malls in south Calgary 15 years ago.

Winnipeg is at 6

Halifax just went up to four :(

But last night's find might be the body of a missing cabbie from January which will be nice for the family since they'll get some closure.

Apparently cops looking for the cabbie found the body near the site where his car was burned.

Man was murdered
Officials have yet to ID body; autopsy to be performed Friday
By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY, DAVENE JEFFREY and JOHN McPHEE Staff Reporters
Thu. Apr 2 - 4:54 PM

RCMP have confirmed that a body found in North Preston on Wednesday afternoon is a man and he was murdered.

“We’re treating the death as a homicide and right now there’s no positive (identification),” RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said Thursday morning.

Cpl. Taplin said police will not have a positive ID until an autopsy is completed.

The body had not been removed from the scene of Upper Governor Street by 2 p.m., about 30 minutes after the Nova Scotia medical examiner arrived. The body was expected to be moved later in the day and an autopsy will be done Friday.

On Wednesday, officers were walking along the dirt road looking for the body of missing taxi driver Sergei Kostin.

“Since Mr. Kostin disappeared, we’ve been periodically looking in certain areas all through the Cherry Brook (and) North Preston area and yesterday this is one of the areas they wanted to look in,” Cpl. Taplin said.

“This is probably the fourth area up in around here. We done North Preston, just off the Downey Road area, we searched all in there, we’ve searched up in an area in Dartmouth, last week we were in the Cherry Brook area and yesterday it was walking down the roads and fortunately the body was found.”

The 40-year-old cabbie with Bob’s/Bluebell Taxi in Dartmouth hasn’t been seen since he went to pick up a fare at a variety store at 21 Gaston Rd. in Dartmouth at 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 17. Police are still asking the public for any information on the two men Mr. Kostin picked up that afternoon.

Twenty minutes later, the global positioning system in Mr. Kostin’s cab was disabled at the end of Johnston Road in Cherry Brook.

Four forensic identification units returned to the scene Thursday morning.

When asked if any identification was found on the body, Cpl. Taplin told reporters there was some evidence seized at the scene. He would not disclose details.

“That’s going to be part of the investigation that’s going to continue,” he said.

“Right now, we can’t have a positive identification of the male until the autopsy is completed.”

Cpl. Taplin also said he could not yet release the age and race of the man or say how decomposed the body is.

“We can say that we do believe the body has been there for a while,” he said.

Family members will not be identified until a positive identification is made.

A Natural Resources helicopter circled the area at least four times by noon Thursday, with officers taking aerial photographs before they continued their investigation.

RCMP forensic investigators used a chainsaw at the scene to clear the brush around the body.

The forensic unit remained at the scene — about 500 metres from the centre of North Preston — until about 10 p.m. Wednesday night.

“This morning they’re going to be doing some aerial photos and then they’re going to be back on scene and they’ll continue their investigation where they left off last night,” Cpl. Taplin said Thursday.

The recent mild weather likely helped officers in making the discovery, he said.

By late Wednesday afternoon, police had closed off access to the area and were turning away any vehicles that attempted to pass.

Upper Governor Street is one of only two ways in and out of North Preston.

Mr. Kostin was reported missing on Jan. 17 by co-workers at Bob’s.

A day later, his burned-out green Chevrolet Impala was found behind an abandoned North Preston building on Downey Road.

Mr. Kostin is a native of Ukraine who came to Halifax in 1993. He has a wife and two children in Ukraine.

His missing person’s case has been added to the province’s major crimes rewards program, which offers cash rewards of up to $150,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Another taxi driver who has known Mr. Kostin for about five years said many passengers he drove Thursday fondly remembered Mr. Kostin.

“One lady said ... he was very polite, he helped her to the car and helped her with groceries,” said the driver, who asked not to be named.

“She got in his car so many times and his car was always clean and he was polite.

“It’s really touchy for people. They were strangers but they remember him.”

Earlier this week, this driver said he believes Mr. Kostin got caught in the middle of trouble among his passengers or could have witnessed something

Sure they were.

Sure they were. Sure they were.

Calgary is purrfect! :fruit:

You might want to check it out some time.

As long as you promise to stay far away from me when I do. :)

Just a follow up on my last post.

Body ID’d as missing cabbie

By IAN FAIRCLOUGH Staff Reporter
Sun. Apr 5 - 5:11 AM
RCMP have identified human remains found in North Preston last week as those of missing cab driver Sergei Kostin.

The Ukrainian-born driver for Bob’s and Blue Bell Taxi has been missing since Jan. 17. His burned-out cab was found three days later in North Preston, about one kilometre from where he was found Wednesday afternoon in brush along Upper Governor Street.

Police say they are treating his death as a homicide.

News that the remains were in fact those of Mr. Kostin was not a surprise to one of his friends and fellow cab drivers.

"Everyone expected it; everyone knew," the man said Saturday night. "It’s very sad."

The man, who didn’t want to be identified, said Mr. Kostin, who was 40 at the time of his death, can at least be laid to rest now that he has been found.

Police aren’t releasing information about how Mr. Kostin was killed. RCMP spokeswoman Const. Lana Woodfine said that information is part of the investigation by the Halifax RCMP-Halifax Regional Police integrated major crime unit.

Mr. Kostin’s friend said he is working in the same area that Mr. Kostin covered.

He said passengers there tell him that Mr. Kostin was a "very good guy.

Some older ladies get tears and cry. They said he was very polite and helpful. Everyone remembers him."

The man said Mr. Kostin’s case had already made him uneasy. "It’s not easy to find another job," he said.

He said he doesn’t have safety shields in his car because they make some fares uncomfortable.

There are passengers who like to sit up front, he said, to have a personal connection with the driver.

Funeral arrangements are not known at this time. Mr. Kostin was married with two children, and had been planning on returning to Ukraine to start a business with his wife.

Mr. Kostin was last heard from when he went to pick up a fare at a store on Gaston Road in Dartmouth at around 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 17. The global positioning system in his cab was disconnected about 20 minutes later at the end of Johnston Road in Cherry Brook.

Mr. Kostin’s murder is now one of 12 unsolved killings in Halifax Regional Municipality since 2005.

It is among unsolved cases the provincial Justice Department has listed on its website. The department is offering a reward of up to $150,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people responsible for the death.

At least half a dozen cab drivers in the Halifax area have been killed or critically injured in the past decade.

Man gunned down in Est Van makes 26 and I believe there was a murder at UBC yesterday making it 27 for gangcouver.

Calgary likely has one more, two bodies were found in an apartment complex in Eau Claire, likely a murder-suicide.

According to... http://www.cbc.ca/bc/features/homicide/2009.html
...there have been 26 homicides in Metro Vancouver and 2 in Abbotsford but it doesn't include anything for April yet so I guess we're at 28 now taking recent news into account.