Opinion: To get Indigenous murder and suicide rates down, first face facts – Financial Post

May 11, 2023

Canadians need to agree on the hard fact of modern life that education is a prerequisite for economic success

From 2017 through 2021, 1.45 non-Indigenous Canadians in 100,000 died from homicide. Among Indigenous Canadians the rate was six times that: 8.88 in 100,000. That average masks a stark regional difference, however. In B.C., Ontario and Quebec, the Indigenous homicide rate is “only” three times the average for non-Indigenous Canadians. But in the Prairie provinces it is 10 times the non-Indigenous rate. Over the five years 2017-21 two-thirds of all Indigenous homicides took place in the Prairies.

Nationally, three quarters of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous homicide victims are men. The great majority — again, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous — have links to their murderer: a spouse, sibling, friend, or acquaintance. Strangers are a small minority of those perpetrating a homicide.

Read More: https://financialpost.com/opinion/get-indigenous-murder-suicide-rates-down-first-face-facts