People in Winnipeg are nearly three times as likely to be robbed and twice as likely to be killed in a homicide than in other major Canadian cities, a new report says.
The Macdonald Laurier Institute’s Urban Violent Crime Report found Winnipeg has consistently topped the charts in several categories of violent crimes in recent years — making it the most dangerous of nine major Canadian cities per capita.
“Homicide, sexual assault, and robbery are all higher in Winnipeg today than they were immediately before the pandemic,” said the report, released by the Ottawa-based think tank this month.
“Violent crime in Winnipeg is high, rising, and showing no signs of slowing down.”
The document analyzed police- reported violent crime data collected between 2014 and 2023 in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Peel Region, Toronto, York Region, Ottawa and Montreal. Collectively, the cities represent one-third of Canada’s population.
It concluded Winnipeg has “crime rates that far exceed those of other cities” with consistent growth in violence over the last decade.
“A city’s crime rate is affected by various historical, demographic, economic and institutional factors; Winnipeg’s higher crime rate does not mean that Winnipeg police are inherently worse than others at performing their job,” the report said, noting the rise in crime is part of a larger trend throughout the country.
“The purpose of this report… is not to justify or explain differences between jurisdictions or changes to crime rates. We simply seek to report the data and let it speak for itself.”
Nearly all of the cities involved in the report experienced increases in certain violent crimes over the last year, particularly sexual assaults and robberies; homicide rates rose in five cities.
In Winnipeg, robbery rates reached 306 per 100,000 people in 2023 — nearly tripling Edmonton’s rate of 106 per 100,000, which was the second highest.
The Macdonald Laurier Institute’s Urban Violent Crime Report found Winnipeg has consistently topped the charts in several categories of violent crimes in recent years — making it the most dangerous of nine major Canadian cities per capita.
The WPS annual statistical report released in June stated the number of robberies reported between 2022 and 2023 increased by 22 per cent, rising to 2,937 from 2,410.
The crime’s frequency has risen by 36 per cent over the last five years. Police cleared 30 per cent of robbery investigations in 2023, WPS data shows.
The Macdonald Laurier report found Winnipeg had the highest homicide rate per capita in each of the last five years, reaching roughly six per 100,000 people in 2023 and more than doubling every city except Edmonton (four per 100,000).
Homicides decreased from 53 in 2022 to 46 in 2023, but remained up by 13 per cent over the last five years, WPS data shows. Last year’s clearance rate was 80 per cent.
Winnipeg also had higher aggravated assault rates than other cities in 2023 at 23 per 100,000, placing it second only to Edmonton (39 per 100,000), according to the report.
High sexual assault rates
The city also had among the highest rates of sexual assaults in the country last year at 108 per 100,000 —just behind Edmonton at 109 per 100,000, it said.
WPS data, which logs sexual assaults in three different categories consistent with the Criminal Code, showed the number of incidents in which the victim received minor or no injuries shrunk from 928 to 860 last year, an improvement of 7 per cent.
Despite the single year decline, the crime remains up by 7 per cent over the last five years. Clearance rates for such offences were 35 per cent, WPS data shows.
Sexual assaults involving weapons also declined last year, from 21 to 16. The rate of armed sexual assaults has shrunk by 18 per cent over the past half-decade, and in 2023 the clearance rate was 38 per cent, the WPS data show.
One person was a victim of aggravated sexual assault in Winnipeg, in which they were seriously wounded or their life was endangered, last year. The incident was cleared by police, WPS data show. The rate of such assaults has decreased by 74 per cent over the last five years.
The Macdonald Laurier report identified inconsistencies in crime data tracked by police and data recorded by Statistics Canada, which is used to create the national Crime Severity Index.
The report included several recommendations to improve the quality of violent crime data collection, including “harmonizing reporting methods” across all jurisdictions to ensure uniform definitions are used for all violent crime data regardless of the city.
Most cities define crimes based on the Criminal Code, but there are some exceptions, such as Vancouver, it said.
It also recommended Canadian cities collaborate and share quarterly crime data so it is available in “a timely, transparent, and accessible manner.”
“We hope this report provides the impetus for more and better data-sharing among Canadian cities. The legitimacy of our criminal justice system depends on it.”
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler Searle
Reporter
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
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