Canadian homicide rates at 44-year-low, with drops in major cities

Canada's homicide rate last year was the lowest it's been since 1966, the year the Canada and Quebec pension plans were introduced, Neil Young joined Stephen Stills and David Crosby to form Buffalo Springfield and William Shatner was launched into space on a TV show called Star Trek.

The latest figures released by Statistics Canada show Canadians killed each other at a rate of 1.62 per 100,000 population.

"It's quite wonderful," Rosemary Gartner, a criminologist at the University of Toronto told the Globe and Mail.

Gartner said the drop is hard to explain. The greying of the Baby Boomers (older people tend to commit less crime) accounts for only part of the decline. Colleague Ron Melchers of the University of Ottawa said it could be part of a trend towards reduced violence in secularized Western societies.

Vancouver was among several metropolitan areas that recorded fewer homicides last year according to StatsCan, with a 42 per cent drop in the number of killings, the lowest number since 1981.

StatsCan's rankings for metropolitan areas put Thunder Bay, Ont., at the top of the homicide list.

Though it only had five murders last year, Thunder Bay, Ont., was ranked No. 1 with a homicide rate of 4.2, which was actually down from the 2009 rate of 5.0. Metro Vancouver, by contrast, had a rate of 1.5 last year despite reporting 36 murders.

Western Canada remains a hot spot for murder, though the numbers are down.

Saskatoon was No. 2 on the list after its murder rate jumped to 3.7 from 2.3, with 10 killings last year. Regina, with eight homicides, had the identical rate at No. 3.

Winnipeg, once Canada's murder capital, recorded 22 homicides last year, with a rate of 2.8, compared with 4.2 in 2009, still the fourth-highest rate in Canada. But the Winnipeg Free Press noted killings in rural Manitoba reached 23 last year, giving Manitoba "the dubious distinction of the highest rate of homicide among all the provinces, at 3.6 per 100,000."

Halifax was the deadliest Atlantic Canada city, ranked at No. 5 with a homicide rate of 2.7 thanks to 11 killings. It's tied with Edmonton in the rankings, though the Alberta capital had almost three times as many homicides.

Booming Calgary, by contrast, had only 15 homicides and placed 22nd on the list. Calgary Police Acting Insp. Grant Miller said police are working hard to quell gang activity that is a major source of violence.

Montreal ranks below Ottawa, with a murder rate of 1.3, which is actually up because it experienced 49 killings last year, five more than 2009. The rate also rose, to 1.4 from 1.1, in the nation's capital because its 13 homicides were three more than in 2009.

Metro Toronto had the highest number of total murders, 80, but the homicide rate dropped to 1.4 from 1.6 in 2009. With 40 homicides so far this year, the rate appears set to drop again. However, Toronto police say the stats and rankings don't mean a lot.

"We are reluctant to comment," Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash told the Toronto Star. "Historically in Toronto the rates have been consistent and we still have two months to go in the year."

StstsCan's numbers show firearms are still the primary weapon used in killings but that's been trending downward for three decades. Fewer murders are being committed with long guns, the Globe reported, but Melchers said the doomed federal long-gun registry isn't responsible.

Instead, he said the migration of Canadians to cities from rural areas, plus the 1977 stiffening of gun-control legislation regarding the purchase and storage of guns are likely responsible for the drop.

And where are you least likely to be murdered? You're safest in Guelph, Ont., Trois-Rivieres, Que., Windsor, Ont., and Saguenay, Que., all of which recorded no murders last year, putting their rate at zero.