(Reuters) -The homicide price in Canada final yr rose to its highest degree since 2005, pushed up partly by the nation’s worst-ever mass taking pictures, by which 22 folks died, Statistics Canada stated on Thursday.
Statscan additionally famous societal stresses it stated had been brought on by lockdowns linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canadian police reported 743 murders in 2020, up from 687 in 2019. The homicide price elevated to 1.95 per 100,000 folks, the best in 15 years, from 1.83 per 100,000 folks in 2019.
The Canadian price has step by step declined since its final current peak in 1991 of two.69 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
“Whereas murder continues to be a comparatively uncommon incidence, representing lower than 0.2% of all violent crimes in Canada in 2020, murder charges are thought of benchmarks for ranges of violence,” Statscan stated in a commentary.
By comparability, the general U.S. homicide price in 2020 was round 6.5 homicides per 100,000 folks, in response to FBI information.
The Canadian enhance was pushed by extra murders within the provinces of Alberta and Nova Scotia.
Gabriel Wortman killed 13 folks in Nova Scotia on the evening of April 18, 2020, and one other 9 the following day earlier than police shot him useless.
This contributed to an “uncharacteristically excessive murder rely and price for the province,” Statscan stated.
The 2 most populated cities in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton, recorded massive will increase, and every contributed 15 extra murders to the nationwide tally than in 2019.
Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolis, noticed a 22% lower within the price of firearm-related homicides from 1.03 per 100,000
inhabitants to 0.80.
There have been 15 extra firearm-related killings in Canada final yr, in contrast with 2019, and gang-related murders decreased 10% in the identical interval.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Enhancing by Giles Elgood and Jonathan Oatis)
