A new StatsCan report says homicides of Indigenous women and girls result in charges of manslaughter instead of murder more often than when the victims were non-Indigenous. Red dresses are seen among the left over debris of a logging cut block in Fairy Creek logging area near Port Renfrew, B.C. Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
OTTAWA – A new Statistics Canada report says homicides of Indigenous women and girls are less likely to result in the most serious murder charges than cases in which victims were non-Indigenous.
More than half of cases involving non-Indigenous women and girls between 2009 and 2021 resulted in charges of first-degree murder, but the offences of second-degree murder and manslaughter were more common when the victim was Indigenous.
StatCan says during that time period, Indigenous women and girls were killed at a rate six times higher than that of women and girls who were not Indigenous.
The report released today coincides with the Sisters in Spirit Day and the National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.
StatCan says 87 per cent of homicides of Indigenous women and girls that are solved, compared to 90 per cent of cases where the victim was a non-Indigenous woman or girl, while both categories had the same conviction rate of 55 per cent.
The report says most Indigenous women and girls were found to be killed by someone they knew, and the accused was likely to be Indigenous.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2023.
