Mayor, police chief shoulder blame for aboriginal murder rate
A criminologist studying why so many murder victims in Winnipeg are aboriginal says the police chief and mayor are partly to blame.
Lisa Monchalin has studied Winnipeg's efforts to reduce crime affecting urban aboriginal people and says a strategy to tackle the problem three years ago has fizzled.
"No real action, no real actual practice had taken place on the ground level. You know, we're still kind of waiting [and] what is the result of all of that?"
According to a recent Statistics Canada report, half of Winnipeg's homicide victims in 2011 were aboriginal.
By comparison Monchalin says Edmonton is making progress to reduce crime among aboriginal people because that city's leaders have embraced the plan.
"They have the mayor on board, which is a major thing. You know, without the mayor on board you can't really get things moving forward," she said.
