Gun-Related Violent Crime in Canada Has Risen 81 Percent in Past 15 Years

Toronto police announced on December 5, 2022, that they had seized 62 illegal guns as part of an organized crime firearms trafficking bust. Toronto Police Handout

Violent crime involving guns continues to rise in Canada, representing a larger share than ever before of the country’s homicides, attempted murders, aggravated assaults, and gang-related crimes, according to a new Statistics Canada report.

Violent crimes involving firearms have risen nearly 9 percent in Canada between 2021 and 2022 and are up 81 percent overall since StatCan started compiling data on such crimes in 2009.

“The increase in firearm-related violent crimes in 2022 is the continuation of an upward trend that began in 2013,” the report reads. “Since then, the rate of firearm-related violent crime has increased 55 percent, which is larger than the increase in violent crime overall, [up] 24 percent.”

The report coincides with another StatCan report released last summer that revealed the severity of violent crime was at its highest point ever in 15 years, with murders reaching their highest rate in 30 years.

Homicide rates have increased 64 percent since 2013, with the rate of firearm-related homicide in 2022 the highest it’s been since 1991.

In 2022, police reported 874 homicides, 342 of which were committed with a firearm. This was 44 more homicides committed with a firearm than in 2021, and 208 more homicides committed with a firearm than in 2013.

Rise of Gun Crime in Ontario

Police in Ontario reported 4,791 firearm-related violent crimes in 2022, up 24 percent over the previous year. Ontario’s rates accounted for roughly 70 percent of the increase in such incidents across the country.

“The increase in firearm-related violent crime in Ontario was largely driven by an increase in the number of these crimes in Toronto,” the report says. “Although almost all census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in Ontario saw an increase in firearm-related violent crime, the increase in the number of these crimes was especially high in Toronto.”

After three consecutive yearly declines, police services covering the Toronto CMA reported 2,576 firearm-related violent crimes; 725 more than in 2021. As a result, the 2022 rate was 36 percent higher than in 2021.

Among Ontario CMAs, only three other regions recorded larger increases in the rate of firearm-related violent crimes: Greater Sudbury with an increase of 65 percent, Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo with an increase of 53 percent, and Brantford, up 39 percent.

Provincial Increases

British Columbia was also a significant contributor to the increase in firearm-related violent crimes in Canada.

Police reported just shy of 1,500 gun-related violent crimes in 2022, nearly 200 more than in the previous year and an increase of 12 percent. That increase was largely due to surging rates in Abbotsford–Mission, which was up 72 percent; Victoria, up 63 percent; and Vancouver, which rose 24 percent.

In 2022, Alberta reported nearly 200 more firearm-related violent crimes than in 2021. As in Ontario and British Columbia, the increase was mostly driven by large urban areas, with rates up 22 percent in Edmonton and 5.1 percent in Calgary.

In New Brunswick, police posted 64 more incidents of firearm-related violent crime in 2022 than in 2021, a 24 increase over the previous year. The rate rose by 46 percent alone in Moncton during this period.

In Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon, the number of firearm-related violent crimes has gone up slightly since 2021.

Some cities also posted strong increases despite an overall decrease in their province. Gatineau, for example, saw a 76 percent rise, the highest increase in firearm-related violent crime among all CMAs in 2022. Despite the surge in the city, which sits just the other side of the border from Ottawa, Quebec’s overall rate decreased by 1.3 percent.

Saskatchewan saw a seven percent decrease in firearm-related violent crimes in 2021, yet it continued to be the province with the highest rate in 2022. Among the country’s CMAs, Regina recorded the highest rate of gun-related violent crime at an average of 83 incidents per 100,000 population.

While the numbers of gun-related violent acts are higher in the cities than in the country, rural regions have experienced a higher increase in the number of incidents than urban areas.

“Although the increase in firearm-related violent crime from 2021 to 2022 was mostly driven by increases in urban areas… it was rural and northern regions that largely contributed to the increase from 2013 to 2022,” the report reads.

From 2013 to 2022, the rate of firearm-related violent crime increased by 141 percent in rural regions in the northern parts of the provinces and 139 percent in the territories. By comparison, in southern urban areas, the rate increased by 45 percent.

Gun Smuggling

Violent crimes, which include gang violence and incidents of organized crime, have been directly tied to the number of guns being smuggled across the U.S. border into Canada each year.

Last spring, then-Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said that the majority of guns used in crime in Canada originate from the United States.

He said the number of guns used in violent crimes in Canada that come from the U.S. ranges “anywhere between 50 to 75 percent,” but added that some experts say that that number is even higher.

Mr. Mendicino referenced the mass shooting in Portapique, NS in April 2020, pointing out that the shooter, Gabriel Wortman, who was not a legal, licensed firearms owner, killed 22 people with illegal guns that were smuggled into Canada from the United States.

One smuggling method identified by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is the mail service. The agency said it seized more than 68,000 guns in cross-border mail between 2018 and 2022. The Senate has since taken steps to amend the Canada Post Corporation Act to permit police to seize suspicious parcels in the post.

Customs and Immigration Union president Mark Weber has also raised the issue of inadequate resources to monitor cargo entering Canada by rail. Mr. Weber told a Commons public safety committee last year that border screening measures for rail cargo are ill-equipped, adding that only a small portion of smuggled guns are seized.

“Canada has almost zero examination capabilities directly at the border, due in part to geographical issues, inadequate tools, and political decisions not to force rail carriers to supply the necessary facilities,” he said in his February 2022 testimony.

“In other words, there’s almost a zero percent chance that any illegal weapons entering the country via rail will ever be found.”

Gun Control Legislation

Ottawa, in May 2020, announced a prohibition on more than 1,500 models and variants of what it calls “assault-style” firearms, making it illegal for them to be used, imported, or sold in Canada.

The Liberal’s gun legislation is currently being studied in the Senate after being adopted in the House of Commons last spring. Bill C-21 would create an evergreen definition of “assault-style” to ban guns designed to hold a magazine of six or more cartridges and discharge centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner.

Critics of the Liberal gun legislation say Bill C-21 targets legal gun owners while doing little to make Canada safer or deal with the smuggling of illegal firearms.

Conservatives have said the bill will not curb the vast majority of guns used in crime, often obtained illegally, and instead target indigenous people, hunters, and farmers rather than gun smugglers and other criminals.

“Eighty-two percent of gun crime is smuggled guns. None of that is going to be solved by banning… hunting rifles,” said Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre during an address to the Conservative caucus in 2022. “Not a single solitary criminal is going to turn in their gun.”