XPost: can.politics, aus.politics, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: rec.arts.tv, talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: alt.atheism, alt.global-warming   
   From: rafael@yahoo.ch   
      
   Canada’s homicide rate remained at its lowest level in five decades last year   
   but aboriginals accounted for a disproportionate number of the victims,   
   Statistics Canada reported on Wednesday   
      
      
      
   Canada’s homicide rate remained at its lowest level in five decades last year   
   but aboriginals accounted for a disproportionate number of the victims,   
   Statistics Canada reported on Wednesday.   
      
   Overall, police services across the country reported 516 killings in 2014 —   
   four more than in 2013. The tiny uptick, however, had no effect on the rate,   
   which was the same as in 2013 and the lowest level since 1966.   
      
   Among provinces, Manitoba had the highest homicide rate for the eighth   
   straight year while Thunder Bay, Ont., picked up the dubious distinction of   
   becoming Canada’s murder capital.   
      
   Guns were more frequently used — 156 times — but the overall rate of gun   
   killings was at its second-lowest level in 40 years.   
      
   Aboriginals accounted for almost one quarter of the victims despite comprising   
   just five per cent of the population.   
      
   “For the first time, complete aboriginal identity data have been reported,”   
   StatCan said.   
      
   The new data show that aboriginal people were victims at a rate about six   
   times higher than that of non-aboriginals, with First Nations men facing   
   triple the risk faced by aboriginal females.   
      
   “Aboriginal males were seven times more likely to be homicide victims   
   compared   
   with non-aboriginal males,” according to Statistics Canada. “The rate of   
   homicide for aboriginal females was six times higher than for their   
   non-aboriginal counterparts.”   
   According to the data, the number of aboriginal female victims has remained   
   relatively stable in recent decades, while the number of non-aboriginal female   
   victims has declined. The result is that, proportionately, victim rates for   
   aboriginal women have increased sharply.   
   Most homicides of aboriginals were solved. In fact, StatCan said, police were   
   more likely to solve killings where aboriginals were victims than those   
   involving non-aboriginal victims.   
   Overall, when the crimes were solved, most victims — 83 per cent — knew   
   their   
   killers, data show — a situation that has long been the case.   
   Acquaintances posed the biggest threat, followed by relatives. Current or   
   ex-spouses were blamed in 83 cases or 16 per cent of all homicides, with women   
   four times more likely than men to die at the hands of partners.   
   Among provinces, Manitoba had the highest homicide rate in 2014 despite seeing   
   fewer of them, with Alberta and Saskatchewan well behind. At the other end,   
   Newfoundland and Labrador had the fewest killings relative to population   
   followed by Nova Scotia, which recorded its lowest rate since StatCan started   
   collecting the relevant data in 1961.   
   In all, five provinces saw declines while seven jurisdictions had increases,   
   with Alberta recording a significant jump — 22 more killings than in 2013 and   
   British Columbia recording 12 more.   
   Thunder Bay, Ont., had the poorest record among major urban centres, reporting   
   an “unusually high” number in 2014, StatCan reported. The 11 reported   
   homicides catapulted the northern Ontario city to a rate almost three times   
   that of second-place Winnipeg.   
   Regina, previously Canada’s murder capital, saw its rate cut in half from a   
   year earlier, dropping it to eighth place in 2014 among the country’s 34   
   metropolitan areas.   
   Five of the larger centres — Saguenay and Sherbrooke in Quebec, and Kingston,   
   Oshawa and Brantford in Ontario — had no homicides.   
   Statistics Canada did note that the territories historically have the highest   
   homicide rates in Canada — with Nunavut leading the way last year.   
      
   “However, because of small numbers, there is large variability from year to   
   year,” the agency said.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)