Canada has been unable to buck the trend of rising violent crime after reporting an increase in such incidents for the second year in a row.
On Thursday, Statistics Canada reported that violent crime was up 5% last year, following a 6% spike in 2021.
The data was measured using the Crime Severity Index (CSI), which takes into account several factors, including the nature of reported crimes and frequency to measure crime rates across Canada.
Crime rates haven’t been this high since 2007 and show no indication of slowing down.
“During the pandemic, because of lockdown restrictions, a lot of crime was reduced or went down — and a lot of that was driven by non-violent crime,” Statistics Canada analyst Warren Silver told CBC News.
“It might be too early to tell if this is just a readjustment or if we’re returning back to where things were earlier. But what we can say is that this is following five years of general increase, with the pandemic kind of interrupting trends.”
Crime was the highest in Manitoba, where the province saw a 14% spike in violent crime. The only provinces and territories to not see a spike in crime last year were New Brunswick, Yukon and Nunavut.
2022 was particularly troubling when it came to rises in homicide and sexual assault. Robberies and extortion also rose to 15% and 19%.
In total, last year there were 874 homicides marking an 8% increase since 2021.
As major cities across Canada struggle to deal with gun violence and drug-related incidents, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has called on the Trudeau government to act and reform Canada’s bail system.
“We would also get at the root cause of this, which is drugs. We believe that addicts need treatment, rehab and detox to get them off drugs, that is the only way to end their cycle of theft,” said Poilievre last month.
“A lot of people are stealing so they can pay for fentanyl and other powerful drugs. The only way to put an end to that is to get them off the drugs.”
