Aboriginal people far more likely to die in homicides: StatsCan

This graph shows that since 1980, the raw number of non-Aboriginal female homicide victims has declined, while the number of Aboriginal female homicide victims has held steady — which means that number has become increasingly disproportionate over the years.

Aboriginal people, men and women alike, were far more likely to have been victims of homicide in 2014, Statistics Canada reported Nov. 25 in an annual release of Canadian homicide numbers.

This year, StatsCan includes Aboriginal-specific numbers in its regular annual homicide report for the first time.

And those numbers show that in 2014, Aboriginal peoples were disproportionately represented as victims and as accused persons in police-reported homicides that year.

For example, nearly one in four homicide victims, or 23 per cent, reported to police in 2014 — 117 out of a Canadian total of 516 — were Aboriginal, StatsCan said.

That means the homicide victimization rate among Aboriginal people was six times higher than the rate for Canadians as a whole.

But Aboriginals only comprise about five per cent of the country’s population.

Aboriginal males were at the greatest risk of being homicide victims — with a victimization rate seven times higher than for non-Aboriginal males, and three times higher than the homicide victimization rate for Aboriginal females.

The highest homicide rates for Aboriginal victims in 2014 were recorded in Manitoba, Alberta and the three northern territories, while the lowest rates were recorded in Quebec and Nova Scotia.

And in 2014, Aboriginal females accounted for 21 per cent of all female homicide victims in Canada, up from 14 per cent in 1991.

Between 1980 and 2014, Aboriginal females account for 16 per cent of all females in Canada who died by homicide.

Other highlights of the report:

• Nunavut’s homicide rate remained unchanged, with four homicides reported in 2014;

• one-third — or 32 per cent — of all persons accused of homicide in Canada in 2014 were Aboriginal;

• the rate of Aboriginal people accused of homicide in 2014 was 10 times higher than for non-Aboriginal people accused of homicide;

• Aboriginal people accounted for 30 per cent of all males accused of homicide in Canada in 2014 and 53 per cent of all females accused of homicide;

• about nine per cent of Aboriginal males died in spousal homicides, compared with only 1 per cent for non-Aboriginal males in 2014; and,

• the greatest over-representation of Aboriginal people as homicide victims occurred in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec.

Overall, the Canadian homicide rate in 2014 was stable, giving 2013 and 2014 the lowest homicide rates since 1966.