Homicides up in B.C. but down in Canada
Postmedia News October 27, 2010 Canada's homicide rate may have been down in 2009, but the number of homicides was up across B.C. -- with Abbotsford-Mission ranking as the country's deadliest city for the second year in a row, Statistics Canada said yesterday.
Among Canada's largest cities, Metro Vancouver was second only to Winnipeg, with 2.62 slayings per 100,000 residents. Winnipeg's per capita rate was 4.15.
Vancouver was also second to Winnipeg for the number of gang-related homicides, with a rate of 0.99 per 100,000. Metro Vancouver ranked first per capita for the number of firearms murders, with 1.42 per 100,000 residents.
Overall, Metro Vancouver had 61 murders in 2009, up eight from the previous year.
Across B.C., gang murders have steadily increased over the last decade, the report said.
In 1999, B.C. had just five gang murders, amounting to 8.4 per cent of the total slayings that year. Last year, there were 35 gang murders across the province -- more than 20 per cent of all homicides in B.C.
Overall, there were 610 homicides in Canada in 2009, down one from the previous year.
"Among census metropolitan areas, Abbotsford-Mission reported the highest homicide rate, followed by Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Saguenay, Halifax, Vancouver and Edmonton," the report said.
"Homicide victims were most likely to be stabbed or shot, with each method accounting for about one-third of all homicides. A further 20 per cent of victims were beaten, seven per cent were strangled or suffocated and the remaining seven per cent were killed by other methods."
Despite the B.C. increases, the rate of firearm-related homicides declined across the country by 12 per cent last year after increasing 24 per cent between 2002 and 2008.