It is actually of comparable size to places like Ottawa, Hamilton and Quebec City where the individual murder counts are I think are quite a bit under 10 so far this year.

Maybe Hamilton and QC, but Ottawa is much bigger (about 30% IIRC). I am curious how Ottawa and QC all have so low of murders, maybe it's because other cities are the big crime cities (Montreal and Toronto) where all the organized crime is based.

It's the wild west out here though. A more indicative comparison would be to the cities in Sask. and Alberta. You will find the murder rate is not that far off when compared strictly within western cities.

Homicide rates (and most other crime rates) are historically quite a bit higher in the western provinces than eastern ones.

The cities of Winnipeg and Ottawa (ie: minus Gatineau) are comparable in size. Calgary is not much bigger. The counts discussed in this thread are mostly for cities, not CMAs. Statistics Canada compiles homicide counts for CMAs, but 2008 data won't be available til 2009. Of course you could try to add up data for all the police jurisdictions within CMAs yourself.

I think the point is that you'd expect (in Canada) 22 murders to be in a much bigger city. It's not a comment on Wpg being small but that one would expect, given its size, for it to have fewer murders.

But as "bad" as Winnipeg might look, Baltimore, with 637,000 people, had 157 murders as of Sept 10. And yes, that's a municipal figure, not a metro one, and there are 4 months' worth of murders to go there.

Toronto has a lower crime rate than Ottawa - last year it was 22% lower. The murder rate is only slightly higher most years.

Weird. I wonder why it is so much higher in the west?

That right there puts everything into perspective. Why is Baltimore so violent?

Not sure as to why, but IIRC, cities like Baltimore, Washington, Miami, and Dallas all had violent crime rates much higher than the cities you think would be high (New York, Detroit etc).

I heard that area is very gang related area, as well as DC area.

US cities like Baltimore have a huge (half of the inner city) underclass of impoverished black people who commit a disproportionately high number of crimes.

Canadian cities just aren't faced with the same scale of problem. Partly this is because there were stronger social programs and there was less abandonment of cities but mostly it comes down to not having had a slavery-driven plantation economy 150 years ago.

Some cities in Canada have analogous but smaller social issues but they haven't managed to do much better with them. The rest never had to deal with much. As a result of this, I don't think it makes sense to talk as if cities with lower crime rates are somehow better managed.

It should be "Why is America so violent?"
Just look at NYC and LA

NYC and LA have murder rates well under 10/100,000. NY's is comparable to western Canadian cities. But thats only homicide, other violent crime and property crimes are lower in these two cities than in many major Canadian ones.

EDIT: Actually, unless they are calculated differently, New York's violent crime rate is lower than any Canadian CMA.

I'm not sure but I seem to recall reading somewhere that they are calculated differently. Although I may just be confusing that with low income.

US and Canadian composite rates are COMPLETELY different and CANNOT be compared- only individual crime types can be compared, and then with the caveat that the US labels crimes differently and does not have one federal criminal code.

"Violent crime rate" in the US ONLY comprises the most serious crimes of murder, first-degree sexual assault, armed robbery, and aggravated assault. Canada's includes SIMPLE assault, which is about 80% of all violent crime. Basically, to compare US and Canadian composite "violent crime rates," first reduce the Canadian rate by 80% and you might come close to comparing apples to apples.

Oh boy, here we go again.

CMA of approx. 700,000 and 1,000,000 aren't all that much different.

Calgary isn't that big, either.

^ LOL, and unlike Ottawa's CMA, Winnipeg's doesn't take in the western side of Quebec.

Terrible week in Pikangikum. The first story is a murder from last year.

Although Ottawa and Gatineau are part of the same CMA, crime statistics such as murder for each city are never grouped together to give a “metro” total of murders.

looking at the crime stats winnipeg is still sitting at 22 and is sitting right were it was this ime last year

Agreed, but this comparison shouldn't be limited to Winnipeg. Maybe someone can get the numbers, but I would imagine the actual rate per 100k is pretty close between Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, etc.

If 22 murders in Winnipeg seems like a lot for a city of 700000, why doesn't the same apply for 28 in Calgary at just over a million, or whatever it's at for Edmonton?

As I seem to recall Edmonton had a higher per capita murder rate than Winnipeg last year.

Thunder Bay is at 0, BTW. NWO can't be more than 5 so far.

Toronto is at 59--33 or 34 have been by gun

GTA is at 86

what is the record for GTA homicides?

I don't know but last year the GTA had 114

that might be the record or its somewhere around there


Peel region has already made a record though, there highest homicide count before was 17 throughout a year, but right now they are already at 24

We're #1 (Winnipeg FP)

Manitoba, Winnipeg murder capitals


Winnipeg and Manitoba are bucking the national trend in a most disturbing category - they now have the highest per capita rates of homicides, according to Statistics Canada.

Manitoba police reported 62 homicides in 2007, 23 more than in 2006. It is the province's highest level since data were first available in 1961.

That's a rate of 5.22 deaths per 100,000 residents. The next closest province was Saskatchewan where, with 30 homicides in 2007, the per capita rate was 3.01. In 2006, Saskatchewan had the highest rate, while Manitoba was second.

Most of the increase occurred in small urban and rural areas, Manitoba police said.

Nationally, there were 594 homicides, 12 (three per cent) fewer than in 2006, and it's a continuation of general downward trend since the mid-1970s.

Stabbings accounted for one-third of the deaths across Canada, while another third involved firearms. One in five homicides nationally were gang related.

While the overall rate of homicides committed with a firearm has generally been decreasing since the mid-1970s, the use of handguns has been on the rise. In 2007, handguns were used in two-thirds of all firearm homicides, up from about one-quarter 20 years ago.

Winnipeg, with 26 homicides in 2007, has a per capita rate of 3.55, the highest of all larger urban centres. Edmonton and Calgary followed, with rates of 3.28 and 3.14, respectively.

Five of the Winnipeg homicides involved firearms and five were gang related.

Montreal is still at 15, we prefer riots here...

Blame Stats Canada! :banana:

Saskatoon tabbed Canada's murder capital
Darren Berhardt and Lori Coolican, The StarPhoenix.com
Published: Thursday, October 23, 2008

Saskatoon has taken over the top spot in the nation in a unenviable category: Murder capital of Canada.

Statistics Canada's annual homicide report, released Thursday, says Saskatoon had the highest rate of all cities for 2007. The number of murders is listed as nine, though the Saskatoon Police Service disputes that figure, saying it was seven.

Nonetheless, whether it was officially nine or seven, Saskatoon was nowhere near Toronto's 111, which accounted for nearly one-fifth the national total. Still, Toronto ranked below Saskatoon.

That's because the data is calculated on a per-capita basis. After taking population into account, the Toronto homicide rate is on par with other large Canadian cities.

Saskatoon's homicide rate was 3.6 per 100,000 population. Winnipeg ranked second at 3.55, followed by Edmonton at 3.28 and Calgary at 3.14. Regina, which topped the list in 2006 with a rate of 5.47, dropped to sixth place in 2007, tied with Greater Sudbury at a rate of 2.46.

One of the homicides included in the report for Saskatoon actually took place in 2006, police spokesperson Alyson Edwards noted.

Marie Lasas was a student whose remains were not found until the following year under a pile of wood behind a vacant house on 33rd Street West.

Another death included in the figures was that of Alec McMillan, whose body was discovered in a ditch just outside the city limits in January.

That investigation is being handled by the RCMP because it is not within the city police force's jurisdiction.

"It's kind of frustrating for us." Edwards said.

The murder capital label tends to distort people's perceptions about the relative level of safety in a small city like Saskatoon, "and it's difficult with homicides, because you can't really prevent those," she said.

So far this year, the city has recorded two homicides and the violent crime rate, which includes homicides, is down by more than 12 per cent, Edwards noted.

Hongming Cheng, assistant professor of criminology at the University of Saskatchewan, cited a number of factors that should be addressed to maintain that positive direction.

Frustrations that seem trivial can grow into explosive situations. Catching those early is key and that requires strong community supports to address poverty and employment, Cheng said.

People who feel disaffected are the ones who act out. With more training opportunities and a focus on restorative justice, people on society's fringe can become more productive members with a sense of belonging, Cheng suggested.

The downside of the current economic boom means the gap between the rich and poor is growing wider. The city has already experienced that as the availability of affordable housing plummets.

And the issue of racism is still an ugly blight on Saskatoon. Cheng has witnessed it through the experiences of his colleagues, one of whom is aboriginal. That professor's son has been told by people in his east side neighbourhood to stay on the west side, Cheng said.

"Aboriginal people have still not been accepted into the dominant society," he said.

It's only so long before those tensions boil over.

The western provinces and the territories have consistently reported the highest homicide rates in the country and last year was no exception, Statistics Canada says.

With 62 homicides, Manitoba had the highest rate (5.22) among the provinces. Even though Ontario had 201 murders, its rate (1.57) was below the national average (1.80).

Saskatchewan (3.01), Alberta (2.53) and British Columbia (2.01) rounded out the top four. Nunavut's seven murders gave it a rate of 22.50, highest of the territories.

Overall, Canada's homicide rate is on a downward trend. After rising through much of the 1960s and early 1970s, it changed direction in the mid-1970s. The 2007 rate is a further decline of three per cent from 2006.


© The StarPhoenix 2008

Source

^ The article does make a point when talking about how Statscan measures the homocide rate on a per capita basis. As I learned in stats, accuracy tends to be distorted when you have a small sample size. Not to say that 9 homocides isn't significant or isn't a red light for a city the size of Saskatoon, but even a difference of 2 or 3 homocides can make a HUGE, statistically significant difference on the per capita figures. What if a village of 100 people had a murder? It would have the highest homocide rate in the nation by far, if comparing it to CMAs. You see what I'm getting at of course.

i agree with you:haha:

Very true.

More interesting to see is how murder rates relate to police funding/strategies for urban centres across Canada, and over time. Although, I suppose the courts need to be included to distribute blame equally, as well, the report must look at social services funding/strategies and how that relates...sounds like a Royal Commission approach :rolleyes:

London is still sitting at 2.

Pikangikum has about 2,300 people and had a homicide recently, their rate is 45/100,000. They had 8 suicides a couple years ago, a rate of about 200/100,000, the highest in the world.

Aside from those rates fluctuating, the population of the reserve (and any reserve, really) fluctuates wildly. Fort William 52 grew by more than 50% between 2001 and 2006 but it's down by about 10% since then. It's around 830 now, according to the First Nation's record, though over 1,700 people are registered to it. (Most probably live in Thunder Bay, but are part of the band.)

Hamilton’s sixth homicide of the year happened this weekend.

Calgary had #30 and #31 this morning, a shooting at a restaurant in the NE.

Actually that is wrong Toronto would be in Second place last year

Toronto had 84 Murders with a population of 2,550,000

That would equal a rate of 3.32/100,000

Toronto's population is no more than 2,600,000....and even that would put them in third place with 3.24/100,000

Its by CMA. Toronto's had 111 homicides with a population 5.1 million, translating to 2.18/100,000 (official population, the reality is much higher, meaning an even lower rate).

Going to a restaurants and clubs has been dangerous here lately.

Looks like Ottawa could have a double homicide on it's hands. Not sure where we're at now for the year..


http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Ottawa...61391-sun.html

I think I heard Radio-Canada’s Ottawa station saying this morning these were murders number 7 and 8 for the year.

Good point. It's worth mentioning though that even with that being the case, there is something to be said for consistency.

nobody else seems to be updating vancouver's stats so here we go:

we're at 51 for the metro

the most recent was a guy shot in a strip mall parking lot at 10pm on the 25th in surrey. no suspects yet.

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/features/homicide/

that's an awesome link with a map of metro vancouver with markers where all the murders have taken place and they link to dates and stories.

Anybody know Halifax's numbers or where i could get them?

All i know is some drug lord has been in the centre of three shootings recently; one at him, one at his dad and one at one of his "people" in front of the IWK of all places!

I dont think any of them were fatal though. Other than those the only murder in the news recently was the murder trail for a native activist's grandson tht killed her back in December...

Knock on wood its been a quite year so far here. The crime rate is staying quietly in the Square and Spryfield....

I think were at 7 or 8 this year so far, though I'm not completely sure

I'm curious to know what Edmonton is at...

Thunder Bay is still at 0. This could be the first murder free year in some time if we can get through the next month without a homicide. Last year, we had two murders in the last three weeks of December. The first for 2007 was in late January, bringing that year's total to three.

from www.cfra.com

I don't want to jinx it, but this could be a record low year for Ottawa. Yay....I think.

22 murders so far in Winnipeg........wow! Considering London is more than half of Winnipeg's population has had just 2 murders so far it makes The Peg pretty bad.
That said 99% of all American cities would kill to have murder rates that low. From the charts that come up from time to time I believe the LOWEST rate in the USA is tied between Portland Or & Austin at 3.3/100k

I'm the daughter of Karla Desrosiers. She was the first homicide victim in Thunder Bay of 2007. I was the one who had found her. Reading these comments about victims of violence, are appalling, some of them were not respectful to the families of these victims. I think that you should consider revising your words when talking about them.

This is my first time searching for any information about my mother online, and to find something like this on the internet made me really angry. Put yourself in my position and see how u'd feel.

People do searches on the internet to find out any information about cases which are ongoing, and to find something like this, is quite sickening to me.
Have some respect

Condolences for your loss, and I'm sure I speak for everyone on here.

That said, I've read through this thread and cannot see where your mother or any other murder victims are satirized. The poster you quote above had a close relative murdered himself.