Homicide rate highest in 39 years

Province’s spike in killings blamed, in part, on increase in gang violence

Despite a continued general decline in the national homicide rate, Saskatchewan’s 2016 rate was at its highest in almost 40 years.

According to figures compiled by Statistics Canada for its Homicide in Canada 2016 report, Saskatchewan reported 54 homicide victims last year for a rate of 4.69 per 100,000 people.

According to Stats Can, that is the province’s “highest number (of victims) since the inception of the Homicide Survey in 1961 and its highest rate in 39 years.”

The increase, the report noted, was in part due to eight additional gang-related homicides. Of Saskatchewan’s 13 gang-related homicides, more than half were reported outside of the two largest cities.

The report also examined the number of Aboriginal homicide victims.

Saskatchewan had the highest rate in 2016, at 18.88 per 100,000 Aboriginal people — a 17 per cent increase over the previous year.

Regina Police Chief Evan Bray said gang violence plays a role in his city’s homicide rates, and is often connected to drugs, alcohol and guns.

“That is a lethal combination, literally, when you put those groups together,” he said.

As well as the significant increase in gang-related homicides from five (11.4 per cent of 2015 homicides) to 13 (24.5 per cent of 2016 homicides), Saskatchewan also reported an increase in gunrelated homicides, rising from 11 (25 per cent) to 17 (33.3 per cent).

The 2016 percentages are roughly on par with national averages for gang-related homicides below the national average of 38.3 per cent for firearm-related homicides.

The per capita homicide rate proved more than enough to push Saskatchewan into the unenviable top spot among provinces. Manitoba has the next-highest per capita rate, at 3.19 per 100,000 people.

While the provincial rate rose, Saskatoon and Regina’s numbers stayed the same or dropped, suggesting the increase is due to homicides that occurred outside the largest cities.

Saskatoon recorded 10 homicides in 2015 and the same number in 2016; its population growth likely accounts for the small drop in its per capita rate, which fell from 3.12 to 3.21. Meanwhile, Regina’s rate saw a somewhat larger drop from 3.72 to 3.23, in part because the number of homicide victims went fell to eight from nine. (Regina city police recorded seven homicides, suggesting the eighth happened just outside their jurisdiction.)

Despite those decreased rates, both cities remain well above the 2016 national average of 1.68. Regina reported the third highest homicide rate among all census metropolitan areas in Canada; only Thunder Bay and Edmonton were higher.

While Regina police have been successful in curbing some trendbased crimes, such as auto theft and arson, Bray noted homicide is very tough to predict and prevent. That said, he pointed out police are working to bring down domestic conflict numbers — and therefore domestic homicides — through its recently unveiled strategy in that area.

In terms of gangs, Bray said police are constantly working on enforcement and suppression, and are also partnering with schools on the prevention side. He added police are in the process of setting up a gang-exit strategy program.

“I think if we can do some work to try and minimize the effect that gangs have, work on domestic-related assaults that can escalate to homicide, those are some of the preventative things that we can do as a police service to try and mitigate the chance of homicides happening in our city,” he said.

Bray said the figures in the report are not surprising, although they are obviously a concern.

“Let’s not forget we’re talking about brothers and sisters and husbands and wives and parents that are losing their lives …,” he said.