APTN News
New homicide numbers released by Statistics Canada Wednesday showed that the number of Indigenous people who died by someone else’s hand remained five times higher than the Canadian average.
Diving deeper into the numbers, while the number of Indigenous men died by homicide is double that of Indigenous women, the number of Indigenous women dying by homicide is on the rise.
“There were six more Indigenous female victims of homicide in 2018 than in 2017, marking a second consecutive annual increase,” according to the report.
Overall, “There were 140 Indigenous victims of homicide in 2018, representing 22 per cent of all homicide victims in Canada,” according to the report.
That breaks down to 7.31 Indigenous people per 100,000 suffered a death by homicide compared to 1.44 for non-Indigenous people.
The number of male Indigenous victims was down by 23 people from 2017 statistics – the first time officials have seen a decrease since 2014 when data on Indigenous identity first became available Statistics Canada said.
Also in the numbers released Wednesday, the rate of Indigenous people accused of homicide is eight times higher than the general population.
According to Stats Can, 30 per cent of people accused of homicide in 2018 were Indigenous people.
While this down from 2017, 37 per cent, it’s eight times higher when compared with non-Indigenous accused persons.
