Manitoba's homicide rate down in 2023, but still highest among provinces: StatsCan

Manitoba saw fewer homicides in 2023 than the year before, as the number of victims at a national level hit its lowest point since 2020, but criminologists say poverty and substance abuse are still driving Manitoba's homicide rate — the highest among Canadian provinces.

Newly released data from Statistics Canada shows homicides are still a "relatively rare occurrence" in the country, accounting for 0.1 per cent of all police-reported violent crimes in 2023.

Last year, police reported 778 homicides in Canada — 104 fewer than in 2022.

Eight provinces saw a decrease in the number of homicides in 2023, including Manitoba, where 74 people were the victims of a homicide, down from 89 in 2022.

Frank Cormier, a criminologist at the University of Manitoba, said the decrease is "fairly significant," but "not terribly surprising," adding the homicide rate fluctuates year to year, given the random nature of the crime.

"Most of the murders in Canada are not well planned out, they're not thought out. They're sort of in the heat of the moment," Cormier said. 

"We have to be careful not to overreact." 

Economic stressors linked to homicides

Canada's Western provinces continued to see the highest homicide rates in the country last year. 

Manitoba had the highest rate — 5.09 homicides per 100,000 people in 2023, according to Statistics Canada, followed by Saskatchewan with a rate of 4.88 homicides per 100,000 and Alberta at 2.45.

The number of homicides also went down in Winnipeg last year, from 53 in 2022 to 45 in 2023, according to Statistics Canada.

However, among Canada's major metropolitan areas, Winnipeg still had the second-highest homicide rate (5.04 per 100,000), surpassed only by Thunder Bay, Ont. (5.39).

Historically, the Prairies have seen the highest homicide rates, Cormier said, driven by "large societal level issues," including addiction and poverty. 

"People who live in very difficult circumstances … tend to become involved in violent crime for a number of reasons," he said. 

Michael Weinrath, a criminologist at the University of Winnipeg, agrees. He said there's a correlation between economic stressors and homicide rates.

"People that are living in poverty … [are] experiencing mental health problems, are experiencing addiction problems, and they're turning to crime," he said. 

As more people struggle financially, Weinrath said there has been a "pretty substantial increase" in Manitoba's homicide rate over the last decade. 

In 2014, the rate was 3.52, and it dropped to a 10-year low of 3.27 in 2016, according to Statistics Canada. It climbed to 5.4 in 2019, before dipping during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, but rose again after that.

"You need big, big solutions for some of these things.… More policing, I don't really know that will solve the rate," he said. 

"We need to do something about our gap between the wealthy, the middle class and [the] underclass."

73% of victims killed in intimate-partner violence were women

The Statistics Canada report also notes Indigenous people continue to face a disproportionate risk of homicide in Canada, rooted in "the ongoing effects of colonization, including systemic discrimination, poverty and a legacy of trauma."

Just over one in every four homicide victims in 2023 was Indigenous, even though Indigenous people represent only five per cent of the overall population. The homicide rate for Indigenous people was also six times higher than the rate for non-Indigenous Canadians, Statistics Canada says.

Nearly one-third of all homicide victims last year belonged to a racialized group. Statistics Canada said out of the 235 victims identified as racialized, the most represented groups were Black and South Asian individuals. 

Statistics Canada said while there was a decline in the number of homicides connected with intimate partner violence — 103 committed by a current or former partner in 2022, compared to 67 reported last year — women continued to account for a disproportionate 73 per cent of homicide victims.

Statistics Canada said the number of gang-related crimes also went down in 2023, contributing to bringing the overall national homicide rate — 1.94 per 100,000 — to its lowest level since 2019.

Still, gang-related violence continued to be one of the main contributors to homicides in Canada, accounting for 173 victims — almost a quarter of last year's killings.

The proportion of gang-related homicides committed by minors increased from 2022, with almost one in every three homicides by a youth being gang-related, the statistics agency said. 

Gun homicides on the rise

One concerning trend in homicides in the last five years is the increase in the number committed with a firearm, said Cormier.

Data from Statistics Canada show nearly four in every 10 homicides last year involved a firearm, similar to the 2022 numbers.

Cormier said the number has slowly crept up, signalling a change in the nature of homicides. 

"Any time we see more firearms being used for murders, that can be an indication that there is more planning going into a killing," he said. "Especially if it's a handgun, those tend to be more premeditated."