Ottawa — Canada's murder rate dropped last year to lows not seen since the year Expo '67 gripped the country's imagination, says a new study of the country's crime rate.
A total of 548 homicides were reported across the country in 2003, 34 fewer than in 2002, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.
That represents a 7 per cent drop in the homicide rate to its lowest level in over 35 years.
And although Canada's violent crime rate remained static last year at 2002 numbers, the rate has been steadily falling through the past decade.
Despite that, a dramatic jump in reports of counterfeiting pushed the national crime rate up by 6 per cent in 2003 — the first substantial increase in a decade.
Most important, though, is the encouraging news that the country's murder rate — like crime in general — has been steadily falling over the past several years, says criminologist Rosemary Gartner.
“The overall picture of crime in Canada looks very much like it looked last year and the year before that and the year before that,” said Ms. Gartner, who teaches at the University of Toronto.
“It does not support claims by some people or concerns expressed by some that Canada is becoming a more violent place.”
Repeated media reports of high-profile tragedies such as a child abduction sometimes give the false impression violent crime is rampant, she said.
“You get the sense the world is a dangerous and unpredictable place,” she said. “... it's the rarest and most unusual forms of crime that tend to drive people's fears the most,” said Ms. Gartner.
Toronto, for example, has been riveted by the kidnap and murder of nine-year- old Cecilia Zhang, who was taken from her family's home last October.
A family acquaintance was charged recently with murder.
Yet Toronto, Canada's biggest city, had the third-lowest crime rate in the StatsCan study.
The murder rate in Toronto was 1.9 per 100,000 residents.
In contrast, Saskatoon had a murder rate of 3.3 per 100,000 people last year.
And Saskatchewan reported the greatest increase in murders in the country last year — 41 compared with 27 murders in 2002.
After peaking in 1991, Canada's overall crime rate fell steadily through the 1990s and remained relatively stable from 2000 to 2002, said StatsCan, citing figures collected by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.
Most of the increase last year was due to a huge jump in reports of counterfeiting. More than 138,000 cases were reported last year — a 72 per cent jump from the previous year.
That could partly be explained by better technology that makes it easier to track and nab counterfeiters, said Ms. Gartner.
“Now, even little mom-and-pop grocery stores have been given ways to look at a $50 bill and determine if it's a counterfeit,” she said.
As well, since the terror attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, authorities have been cracking down on financial crime, especially money laundering, to stop terror financing.
By casting a wider net, authorities are also scooping up counterfeiters.
Overall property crimes and minor offences such as mischief and disturbing the peace were blamed for much of the rising crime rate last year.
Of the 2.5 million Criminal Code offences reported to police last year, 51 per cent were property offences and just 12 per cent involved violent crime, StatsCan said.
Most categories of property crimes increased in 2003, including break-ins, vehicle thefts, possession of stolen goods and minor thefts.
But because this marked the first substantial increase in property crime in over a decade, it could be a statistical blip.
Police forces have also attributed the rise in the number of minor offences to new reporting procedures introduced last year to make it easier for the public to report property crimes, StatsCan noted.
Also adding to the crime rate was a 5 per cent rise in reports of robberies last year. Attempted murders were up 4 per cent.
But the rate of drug crime dropped by 8 per cent — the first such drop since 1993. That was mainly due to a decline in reports of cannabis possession, said StatsCan.
Crime rates increased in all provinces and territories except Ontario and the Yukon, where they remained stable.
