Alberta among provinces where murder rate rose
Canada’s overall homicide rate remained stable in 2014, but Alberta led among the five provinces where the numbers spiked, new data from Statistics Canada shows.
There were 516 homicides in Canada in 2014, four more than the previous year. A total of 83 of those were considered intimate partner homicides, which means the crime was committed by a current or former married, commonlaw, boyfriend/girlfriend partner.
Overall, 2013 and 2014 had the lowest homicide rates since 1966.
The number of homicides in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Yukon and the Northwest Territories all rose from 2013. Alberta saw the most significant spike with an additional 22 homicides.
There were mass murders in both Edmonton and Calgary that year. Phu Lam shot and killed eight people in Edmonton and then took his own life. Statistics Canada shows the number of firearms-related homicides increased in 2014 by 14 per cent, but it’s still the second-lowest recorded rate since data became available in 1974.
In Calgary, Matthew de Grood is facing five counts of first-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of five people at a house party.
Despite a decline in numbers in 2014, Manitoba continues to have the highest homicide rate among the provinces for the eighth year in a row, followed by Alberta and then Saskatchewan.
The data shows almost a quarter of the total number of homicide victims in Canada were reported to be aboriginal, a group that accounts for just five per cent of the population. Aboriginal males were seven times more likely to be homicide victims than non-aboriginal males, while aboriginal females were six times higher than their non-aboriginal counterparts. The rate of homicides involving aboriginal victims was second highest in Alberta after Manitoba.
A higher proportion of homicides of aboriginal victims was solved by police in 2014 compared with non-aboriginal victims, a total of 85 per cent versus 71 per cent. As with non-aboriginal victims, the majority of aboriginal homicides were perpetrated by someone known to them.