Homicide Rate in Canada Hits 10-Year High

We Canadians are known to be a rather peaceable and law-abiding bunch—especially when compared to our neighbours to the south—and this is borne out by an overall drop in the crime rate across the country last year. In fact, the crime rate in Canada has remained stable since 1999.

But the picture isn't so rosy when it comes to homicide and serious crimes such as aggravated assault and attempted murder, according to last week's Statscan report on crime statistics.

On the heels of a dramatic 13 percent increase in 2004, homicides jumped by another 4 percent in 2005, bringing the national rate to the highest level in almost a decade, the agency said. Most of this year's increase was due to a rise in homicides in Alberta and Ontario.

While the homicide rate in Toronto jumped by 9 percent last year, Edmonton had a total of 44 homicides, giving the Alberta capital the dubious distinction of having the highest murder rate in the country. The next highest rates were reported in Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon.

But Lisa Lammi, Public Information Officer with the Edmonton Police Force, says the high number of homicides in 2005 is an anomaly and not indicative of the trend in recent years in Edmonton, which since 2002 has been averaging around 23 homicides per year.

"2005 was really quite unusual with the number of homicides that we had," says Lammi. "We're still trying to figure out why there was that increase."

Erin Van Brunschot, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Calgary, points out that in a city as relatively small as Edmonton, even one or two more murders than usual "can really skew the crime rate." She says the multiple murders of four policemen in Mayerthorpe last year, while not in the Edmonton area, would be enough to make the homicide rate look a lot higher.

While Statscan won't be providing the demographics of the murders until a related report to be released in October, Lammi says 39 percent of homicides in Edmonton for 2004 and 2005 were gang-related. Within the last 15 years, Edmonton, like many other Canadian cities, has experienced a considerable increase in gang activity.

Brad Odson, Executive Director and General Counsel of the John Howard Society in Alberta, says there are two kinds of gangs operating in Edmonton: street gangs which engage in crimes like petty theft and violence, and organized crime gangs, which function along business lines and often use the corporate model to run their operations. But one thing they all have in common is the drug trade.

"In many respects, the easiest and fastest way to make money in North American society is in the drug trade," says Odsen.

Odsen, who teaches criminology at the MacEwan University, says the first two gangs in modern history—the Irish in New York and Boston, and later the Italians who ultimately formed the Mafia—tended to be ethnic people coming from other cultures who knew they were different from those around them and banded together. They came for the promise of wealth and a better life, and when they didn't find it via legitimate means they turned to crime—and murder.

The reasons for joining a gang remain the same today, and Odsen says the many ethnic gangs at work in Edmonton come from countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, China, India, and the Caribbean. There are also Canadian Aboriginal gangs, a Mafia presence and outlaw biker gangs like the Hells Angels. Odsen says most of the Edmonton murders were a result of territorial disputes.

"For the most part, it's turf wars over who's going to control the territory in terms of the drug trade."

In a wave of gang violence in Toronto last summer, many of the 37 gun-related homicides stemmed from a turf war in the Jane and Finch area of the city. Forty people connected to a gang known as the Ardwick Blood Crew were arrested and more than 1,000 charges in all were laid.

While almost all Canadian cities, including Edmonton, have increased law enforcement in an effort to grapple with the problem of gangs, Karen Erickson says the city is also trying a different method. Erickson is Project Manager for Community Solutions to Gang Violence (CSGV), an organization that includes a broad cross-section of groups such as the Young Offenders Centre, the YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters, family service organizations, and representatives from both the Native Counselling Services and the Edmonton Police Force.

"Our approach is to look at what we can do as a community to prevent young people from going down that path and from getting engaged in gangs," says Erickson.

Erickson says there are certain "protective factors" that can be built up around young people to give them an alternative to joining gangs. Because gangs are very adept at recruiting youths and giving them a false sense of protection, CSGV works on the premise that if they can provide young people with a sense of belonging and connectedness to their school, home and community, they won't go looking for it elsewhere.

Odsen lauds CSGV's efforts, saying the Calgary Police's only response to the gang problem is "to throw more guns and police at it." He says it's virtually impossible for police to infiltrate ethnic gangs undercover, and a more effective and enduring approach is to address the conditions that give rise to gangs in the first place, such as poverty and marginalization.

"In Alberta today, we see a growing gulf," says Odsen. "The gap has widened, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer."