Canada’s Murder Rate up for 4th Consecutive Year, Violent Crime at Highest Level Since 2007: StatCan

An RCMP officer stands outside a vehicle at a roadblock at the scene of a shooting in Langley, B.C., on July 25, 2022. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada is experiencing increased crime for the second year in a row, with violent crime at its highest level since 2007, according to new data released by Statistics Canada.

A report released on July 27 indicates that police-reported crime in Canada, as measured by the Crime Severity Index (CSI), was up by 4 percent in 2022. The violent CSI went up 5 percent in 2022, following a 6 percent increase in 2021. In 2022, there was a 15 percent higher rate of robberies, 39 percent more extortions, 8 percent more homicides, and 3 percent more sexual assaults.

The national murder rate was up for the fourth consecutive year, with 874 murders in 2022, an increase of 78 deaths from 2021.

The homicide rate has not been that high since 1992, increasing from 2.08 per 100,000 population in 2021 to 2.25 per 100,000 in 2022.

StatCan says the rise is largely due to three provinces seeing more homicides, with an increase of 30 murders in British Columbia, 26 in Manitoba, and 26 in Quebec.

The highest provincial homicide rate was in Manitoba, at 6.24 murders per 100,000 population, followed by Saskatchewan at 5.94 per 100,000. Meanwhile, Northwest Territories had 6.58 homicides per 100,000 people and Yukon had 4.57 per 100,000.

The indigenous community—including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit—had a homicide rate of 10.98 murders per 100,000 population, almost seven times higher than the non-Indigenous population at 1.69 murders per 100,000.

The agency says crime went down during the first year of the pandemic, in correspondence with the first implementation of lockdowns, but otherwise the Crime Severity Index (CSI) had been rising for five consecutive years beginning in 2015.

Across Canada, only New Brunswick, Yukon, and Nunavut recorded less crime from 2021 to 2022. Manitoba, meanwhile, had the highest CSI increase in 2022, up 14 percent, for both violent and non-violent crimes.

In 2022, said StatCan, police-reported fraud, including general fraud, identity theft, and fraud, was 78 percent higher than a decade ago. Cybercrime, which includes fraud and extortion, was also on the rise.

Streets ‘Unsafe’

Reacting to the latest StatCan data, the Conservative Party said the Liberals’ policies are responsible for the rise in criminality, which is making streets “unsafe.”

“We are experiencing the worst crime wave we have seen in recent memory,” says a July 27 statement from Conservative MP and public safety critic Raquel Dancho and other MPs.

“We need change so that dangerous repeat violent offenders get jail, not bail, and the most serious criminals receive sentences that keep them in prison and the public safe.”

Mr. Trudeau, at a press conference in Newfoundland on July 27, said the Liberal government has been working with the provinces on bail reform. “We’ve been working on strengthening the ways of supporting Canadians because it is not right that in far too many of our cities, we’re seeing an uptick in violent crime,” he said.

The prime minister said that bail reform is one factor, along with “challenges on mental health that have come out of the pandemic.” He said the solution must come from prevention and not just by “stepping up on the security side.”