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More Aboriginal people murdered in Thunder Bay than any other Canadian city excluding Winnipeg: StatsCan

THUNDER BAY – This city recorded the second highest number of Aboriginal people murdered of any Canadian metropolitan area over 100,000 people last year.
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THUNDER BAY – This city recorded the second highest number of Aboriginal people murdered of any Canadian metropolitan area over 100,000 people last year.

Only Winnipeg reported more Aboriginal murder victims than Thunder Bay for 2014, confirmed new numbers from Statistics Canada. 

Statistics Canada’s annual homicide report, released Wednesday, found the city had seven murder cases in 2014 with an Aboriginal victim. Winnipeg reported 14 Aboriginal victims.

“It’s concerning but I think it probably follows suit with a lot of what’s been happening in Canada itself with the over representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system coincides with that number so we’re not surprised,” Thunder Bay Police Service deputy chief Andy Hay said.

There were six Aboriginal victims in Edmonton, four in Calgary, three in Saskatoon and two each in Toronto, Vancouver and Regina.

Nationally, the report found of the 516 homicide cases in Canada last year, 117 of the victims were known to be Aboriginal.

The national rate for Aboriginal victims was 7.20 per 100,000 people, compared to 1.13 for per 100,000 people for non-Aboriginal victims.
In Ontario there were 19 known Aboriginal victims, at a rate of 5.21 per 100,000 people. The provincial non-Aboriginal rate was 0.91 per 100,000 people.

This is the first year the federal agency has included a breakdown of Aboriginal identity.

With 11 homicide cases in 2014, Thunder Bay had by far the highest murder rate in the country at 9.04 per 100,000 people, about three times higher than Winnipeg, which had the second highest rate at 3.26 per 100,000 people.

Of those 11 cases in 2014, nine of them have suspects currently facing charges. In one case the killer, 38-year-old Kevin Guy Boucher who murdered eight-year-old Brandi Marie Wingert, is dead. One case, the death of 32-year-old William Darryl Wapoose, remains unsolved.

The 11 murders was the highest in the city’s history and a significant increase from 2013, when there were three murder cases for a homicide rate of 2.46 per 100,000 people.

So far in 2015 there has been one murder in Thunder Bay, with 18-year-old Cruz Pelletier charged in connection with the June death of 22-year-old Larissa Charlie-Stillaway.

Hay said the city typically records between three to six homicide cases per year, making 2014 and the first three quarters of 2015 both anomolies.

“I don’t think you can look at one year and draw any conclusions from a single year. You have look at broader look, more global picture of it. We had 11 last year, which doesn’t really reflect a normal experience of Thunder Bay nor does the one reflect the normal experience of Thunder Bay,” he said.

 





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