It may not feel like Canada is always the safest—particularly for Torontonians, many of whom are worried about a return to the summer of the gun—but Statistics Canada has different results.
It may not feel like Canada is always the safest—particularly for Torontonians, many of whom are worried about a return to the summer of the gun—but Statistics Canada has different results.
Police-reported crime dropped 6 per cent last year in Canada, to its lowest level since 1972. In Toronto, the severity of crimes dropped 5 per cent in 2011 (admittedly, before the recent Danzig and Eaton Centre shootings). Guelph and Quebec City were the only cities with a lower crime severity index than Toronto.
Still, there were 86 murders recorded in the Toronto census metropolitan area in 2011. That’s up from just 80 the year before.
While most crimes declined—attempted murder, assaults, robberies—there was a 10 per cent increase in luring a child online, and a 40 per cent jump in child pornography. But StatsCan says that’s reflective of better police work, not more people accessing pornography.