WINNIPEG — Indigenous men are nine times more likely to be murdered or become suspects in a homicide in Manitoba than non-aboriginal people according to a recent Stats Canada report.
“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Leslie Spillett, Executive Director of Kanikanichihk, a resource centre for Aboriginal people, “a lot of these people live in poverty, poverty breathes crime.”
For the first time, police data was collected on Indigenous people relating to homicides and Manitoba again had the highest number of homicides out of all the province’s for the 8th year in a row.
READ MORE: Manitoba has the highest homicide rate of any Canadian province
“Our numbers are declining. However, it’s still not good enough,” said Winnipeg Police Deputy Chief Danny Smyth.
Manitoba reported 3.43 homicides per 100,000 residents, followed by Alberta (2.52) and Saskatchewan (2.13).
Historically, the territories have had the highest rates in Canada. However, because of small numbers, there is large variability from year to year. In 2014, with 4 homicides, Nunavut reported the highest homicide rate nationally at 10.93 per 100,000 population.
In 2014, 117 of the 516 homicide victims, or 23%, were reported by police as Aboriginal. In contrast, Aboriginal people accounted for just 5 per cent of the Canadian population.
Nationally, aboriginal people were victims of homicide in 2014 at a rate that was about six times higher than that of non-Aboriginal people.
Aboriginal males were at the greatest risk of being victims of homicide. Aboriginal males were seven times more likely to be homicide victims compared with non-Aboriginal males and three times more likely than Aboriginal females.
The rate of homicide for Aboriginal females was six times higher than for their non-Aboriginal counterparts.
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