Winnipeg 
A recent report from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) authored by senior fellows Dave Snow and Rick Audas has highlighted a significant surge in violent crimes across Canada’s largest cities.
The study, Urban Violent Crime Report, analyzing a decade of police-reported data from nine major urban centers — Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Peel, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and York— pinpoints an unsettling increase in homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, and robbery, jeopardizing public safety.
Winnipeg and Edmonton top the list with particularly high crime rates. Winnipeg stands out with robbery rates nearly three times higher than the next ranked city, while Edmonton records four times as many aggravated assaults as its closest peer, excluding Winnipeg.
Even areas traditionally viewed as safer, like York and Peel in Ontario, are experiencing rising violent crime rates, underscoring that no region is exempt from this upward trend.
Here are the highlights of the report:
Homicide:
Homicide rates per 100,000 population and ranking/Credit: Macdonald-Laurier Institute – Urban Violent Crime Report
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- Winnipeg consistently reports the highest homicide rates among nine Canadian cities, more than double most others since 2018.
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- Edmonton holds the second-highest rate, with a slight decrease last year but high overall for five years.
- Ottawa, along with York and Peel, consistently shows the lowest homicide rates.
- Calgary’s homicide rate decreased across all time spans, dropping by a third from 2016 to 2023.
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Aggravated Assault:
Aggravated assault rates per 100,000 population and ranking/Credit: Macdonald-Laurier Institute – Urban Violent Crime Report
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- Edmonton’s aggravated assault rate stands out at 38.7 incidents per 100,000, over four times higher than other major cities except Winnipeg; slight drop in 2023 but overall rising trend.
- York consistently has the lowest rate since 2016, with declines in the medium and short term.
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Robbery:
Robbery rates per 100,000 population and ranking/Credit: Macdonald-Laurier Institute – Urban Violent Crime Report
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- Winnipeg’s robbery rate for 2023 is 305.9 per 100,000, nearly triple that of any other major city, with consistent increases across all time frames.
- Edmonton has the second-highest rate, but it has decreased significantly since 2016.
- York maintains the lowest robbery rate, though it has risen over the last decade.
- Toronto has also seen a long-term decrease in robbery rates.
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Sexual Assualt:
Sexual assault rates per 100,000 population and ranking/Credit: Macdonald-Laurier Institute – Urban Violent Crime Report
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- Sexual assault rates are rising across all nine Canadian cities, with increases observed in the short term for each city and in the medium and long term for nearly all.
- Ottawa is the exception, showing a decline in its long-term rolling sexual assault rate from 2016 to 2023.
- York’s sexual assault rate has nearly doubled from 28.0 per 100,000 in 2016 to 55.2 per 100,000 in 2023, marking one of the most significant increases.
- Vancouver’s data, using a narrower definition of rape, shows increases but isn’t directly comparable with other cities.
The study finds that the disparities in crime rates between cities are stark, with Winnipeg, Montreal, and York showing varied levels of violent crime, yet all are grappling with increases across most categories of violent crime, whether short, medium, or long-term.
The report stresses that the decline in urban crime noted during the 2020 pandemic has reversed, with violent crime rates now climbing in many cities.
The authors say more transparency and coordination of crime data reporting is required and discrepancies in how crimes are categorized should be solved. The authors illustrated Vancouver’s exclusion from sexual assault rankings due to a narrower definition of the crime.
