Homicide rate dropped in the Maritimes in 2021, but gang-related killings increased: Statistics Canada

New numbers from Statistics Canada show the homicide rate decreased in all three Maritime provinces in 2021, but gang-related killings increased in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Monday’s “Homicide trends in Canada, 2021” report does point out that last year’s numbers for Nova Scotia had a sizable decrease due to the high homicide count resulting from the mass shooting of 22 people in 2020.

Nova Scotia’s homicide rate was down 1.45 per cent in 2021, compared to 2020, with 23 homicides recorded in 2021, compared to 37 in 2020. Eleven of the homicides happened in the Halifax area.

New Brunswick homicide rate was down 0.4 per cent last year. The province saw 14 homicides in 2020 and 11 in 2021. Two of those occurred in Moncton and one happened in Saint John.

Prince Edward Island saw no homicides in 2021 -- down 0.62 per cent compared to 2020, when one homicide was reported.

However, the national homicide rate has increased for a third consecutive year.

There were 788 homicides in Canada last year -- up three per cent from 2020. It marked the highest rate of homicides in Canada since 2005.

GANG-RELATED KILLINGS

Nearly one-quarter of killings in 2021 -- 184 -- were connected to gangs.

There were 33 additional gang-related homicides in 2021, compared with 2020, resulting in the highest rate -- 0.48 per cent -- recorded in Canada in 16 years.

Nova Scotia saw an increase in gang-related homicides, with five killings -- or 21.7 per cent -- being gang-related in 2021, compared to 0 gang-related homicides in 2020. Three of the gang-related homicides were in the Halifax area.

"That suggests that the Halifax Regional Police in the province of Nova Scotia need to do more outreach to those communities that are being affected by gang-related violence," said Michael Boudreau, a criminology professor at St. Thomas University.

Nova Scotia RCMP uses the crime numbers to pinpoint trends and create priority-policing strategies.

"A lot of times our local commanders and our local officers, members will work with their community and their elected officials to identify what specific issues a community is facing," said Nova Scotia RCMP Cpl. Chris Marshall.

That includes a task force focused on reducing gang violence.

"Here in the city, specifically and the Halifax district, we have a guns and gangs unit that its specific mandate is to deal with gang violence, but all across the province we have what we would call street crime units as well," said Marshall.

New Brunswick also saw a spike in gang-related homicides in 2021, with two killings -- or 18.2 per cent -- being gang-related. New Brunswick did not report any gang-related homicides in 2020. One of the gang-related deaths happened in the Moncton area.

FIREARMS

The report found that firearms remain the most common murder weapon, with two in five homicide victims -- or 40 per cent – having been shot. Almost half of firearm-related homicides were identified as gang-related.

Overall, the national firearm-related homicide rate increased by 6 per cent, compared with 2020.

Nova Scotia had the second highest firearm-related homicide rate in the country in 2021, with 1.21 shooting deaths per 100,000 population. Twelve people were killed in shootings in 2021 in Nova Scotia.

Saskatchewan had the highest firearm-related homicide rate, with 1.86 shooting deaths per population.

Among mid-sized Canadian cities, Halifax had the second highest firearm-related homicide rate, at 1.74 per population of 100,000. Eight Halifax homicide victims were killed in shootings.

With files from The Canadian Press