Ottawa-Gatineau homicide rate up 45% in one year

Data from Statistics Canada shows that the Ottawa-Gatineau area is above the country-wide homicide rate in 2024.

According to the report, Canada’s homicide rate is 1.91, and Ottawa-Gatineau’s is 2.10 per 100,000 people. Between the two cities, there were 27 homicides per 1.2 million people.

Between 2023 and 2024, StatCan notes this is a 45.20 per cent increase in homicides, or nine more overall.

Last year, in its annual report, Ottawa police said there was a total of 21 homicides, a large increase from the 13 homicides in 2023. Part of the higher numbers, police indicated in the report, was because of the Barrhaven mass murder. The nation’s capital also saw several instances of femicides in 2024, including a blatant daytime attack on a mother who was at the park with her four children. 

“The homicide rate is considered a key metric for assessing the state of violence, community safety and social welfare of a country,” the StatCan report reads.

Canada’s homicide rate decreased by 4 per cent. Thunder Bay recorded the highest homicide rate in the country in 2024, rising from 5.41 to 6.08 murders per 100,000 people.

Rise of youth involved in violent crime

A key point revealed by the data is the number of people under the age of 18 accused with homicide in 2024.

The number rose from 0.84 to 0.94 per 100,000 youths. Last year, police across the country reported 13 incidents of youth accused of homicide, five of which had three or more young people accused.

In total, there were 72 murders where youths were accused in 2024, compared to 65 the year prior in Canada.

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Marcell Wilson, founder and president of One By One, a think tank aimed at decreasing violence, said the organization has seen a huge difference on the ground.

“I’ve seen quite a few significant changes that led to this growing trend, one is definitely access to illegal firearms,” he said. “Two would be youth having the understanding of the softness, if you will, of being charged and convicted as a young offender and exploiting that knowledge. Three, I’d say we’ve seen a significant rise in youth mental health-related issues.”

Wilson said the internet and social media play a role in giving youth access to violent criminal content that was not a factor several decades ago. Systematic issues like food insecurity, poverty and the economy are also driving the rates.

One of the problems Wilson is seeing is that groups aimed to help youth are not meeting them where they are.

“The issue is that a lot of the organizations that mean well don’t have the skills, the ability, the lived experience to connect with the target demographic. So, if we’re talking about a high-risk demographic of youth, they’re not going to seek out organizations to help.”

He said that the groups need to focus on “absorbing” people who have lived experience into the organization to help bring in young people. Wilson, who said he has had the privilege to sit in on government discussions and hearings on the topic, knows there is a lot of money being thrown at the issue.

“There’s a disconnect between organizations and governments,” he said. “In Canada, we lack heavily in understanding how we’re spending this money, what’s working, and what’s not. So it’s not really an issue of a lack of funding.”

With files from 680 NewsRadio’s Felix Sloo.