Quebec's violent gun crime rate below Canadian average: StatsCan

Canada's violent gun crime rate rose by 8.9 per cent in 2022 to reach the highest rate since it began keeping such statistics in 2009, but Quebec stood out with a slight drop and remained below the Canadian average.

The Canadian rate of violent gun crime stood at 36.7 incidents per 100,000 people in 2022. The rise was mainly due to relatively large increases in the number of incidents in Ontario (up 1,016 incidents, rate up 24 per cent), New Brunswick (up 64 incidents, rate up 24 per cent) and British Columbia (up 194 incidents, rate up 12 per cent).

In Quebec, the decline was hardly significant at 1.3 per cent, but its rate of 24.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants places it third lowest, behind Prince Edward Island (10) and Newfoundland and Labrador (22.8).

The Juristat article published on the Statistics Canada website on Tuesday showed that, over the longer term, the rate of violent gun crime, which had been steadily declining between 2009 and 2013, was on the rise over the following ten years.

In Quebec, the rate had risen between 2009 and 2011, when it peaked at just under 35 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, then dropped steadily to around 20 from 2016 to 2019. It rose again over the following two years, reaching 25.1 in 2021, before falling back to 24.8 the following year.

New Brunswick, meanwhile, has seen its rate rise steadily since 2015 to stand at 40.6 cases of violent gun crime per 100,000 population in 2022, its highest rate since data began.

But among the provinces, Saskatchewan has the worst record, with a staggering 109.6 cases per 100,000 population, despite a significant 7 per cent drop compared to 2021. Although high, these figures pale compared to the staggering rates recorded in the Northwest Territories (230.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, up 8.2 per cent) and Nunavut (182.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, down 22.9 per cent).

In terms of major cities, Toronto saw a sharp 36 per cent increase over the previous year, with a rate of 43.2 cases per 100,000 people. Montreal's rate is 28 per 100,000 people, a slight increase of 0.4 per cent over 2021.

In Vancouver, the rate (23.6 incidents per 100,000 people) was 24 per cent higher than in 2021.

Unlike violent crime in general, where most victims (53 per cent) were women, violent gun crime in 2022 targeted mostly men (66 per cent).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 30, 2024.