Black people in Ontario are nearly 17 times more likely to be killed in a police shooting than white people, a professor who conducted a study for the Ipperwash inquiry told CBC on Friday.

"Compared to the representation in the general population, both African Canadians and aboriginal Canadians are highly overrepresented," said Scot Wortley, one of two professors who researched the use of police force in Ontario.

The study was commissioned by the Ipperwash inquiry and presented during the final day of closing arguments Thursday as part of the submission from the African Canadian Legal Clinic.

To conduct the study, researchers had a rare glimpse at raw data from the province's Special Investigations Unit, the agency that is responsible for probing incidents involving civilians and police that result in injury or death.

The report found black and aboriginal people in Ontario were over-represented in SIU cases.

"For every 100,000 black people there were 23 SIU investigations compared to five for every 100,000 white people," University of Toronto professor Wortley told CBC News.

The study also found that blacksin Ontario are4.5 times more likely to be involved in an SIU investigation than white people, while aboriginal people were 5.3 times more likely.

Wortley stressed that the 69-page preliminary report did not establish the cause of the over-representation of blacks and aboriginal people.

The analysis of the use of police force in Ontario was conducted specifically for the judicial inquiry into the fatal police shooting of aboriginal protester Dudley George at Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995.

Justice Sidney Lindenhas presidedover the inquiry, which began in April 2004inForest, Ont. He is examining what role, if any, the provincial government played in the events leading to George's death, and how to prevent similar incidents.