NWT Accounts for Highest Homicide Rates, With 100 Per Cent Indigenous Victims

The Northwest Territories has the highest homicide rates in Canada per 100,000 population. In 2015, the CBC reported, "all of the homicide victims in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in 2014 were of aboriginal descent." As demonstrated by the chart below, 100 per cent of homicide victims in the NWT in 2015, were Indigenous as well. 

The Indigenous population in NWT makes up approximately half of the overall population. The Daily, from Statistics Canada, reports "Aboriginal males were at the greatest risk of being victims of homicide." The same report by Statistics Canada, states that 25 per cent of homicide victims, as reported by police, were Indigenous. Therefore, "Aboriginal people were victims of homicide at a rate that was about seven times higher than that of non-Aboriginal people." According to Statistics Canada, however, the offenders were also of Indigenous decent.

In 2015, the CBC reported "Canada's three Northern territories are jailing more people per capita than the rest of Canada, and the [NWT] is jailing more people per capita than the United States". In conjunction with this, Canada Without Poverty reports that the NWT has "a crime rate six times higher than the national rate."

To give context to the high homicide rates in NWT, in 2016, Canada Without Poverty reports the territory faces "poor quality housing and housing shortages, growing disparity in levels of education, employment and incomes, rising alcohol and substance abuse, and increasing rates of crime, suicide and homelessness."

In 2015, The Conference Board of Canada, too, affirmed the bleak circumstances that Northern Canada faces. "Compared to Southern Canada, many Northern communities fare poorly in measures such as educational achievement, population health, crime rates (especially in the three territories), and economic diversity and development.Thriving communities - wherever they are located in Canada - have four components in common: they are secure, self-reliant, sustainable, and socially developed."

As poverty is a known contributor to criminal offences, low rates of high school completion contribute to poverty in NWT. In 2016, Statistics Canada reported that only 17.2 per cent of the total Indigenous population in the NWT in 2011, obtained their high school diplomas. 

The Centre for the North, as reported by The Conference Board of Canada, highlights the key factors associated with potential success for Northern Canada. "The study concludes that a thriving Northern community must be, first and foremost, secure - it has to meet the basic needs of its residents, such as providing adequate food, water and shelter. Second, its economy needs to create local wealth and be self-reliant. Third, communities have to be sustainable with a diverse economy and a balance between local economic development and environmental protection. Fourth, residents must enjoy good health and quality of life, and have a general sense of well-being and belonging to their communities."

All together, it can be gathered through this data that the Indigenous communities in Northern Canada, specifically the Northwest Territories, are deprived of necessary resources to prevent issues such as homicide. It is well known that the Indigenous population of Canada suffers from inter-generational trauma. It is, however, disconcerting that the Northwest Territories not only accounts for the province/territory with the highest homicide rates, but also with 100 per cent of the victims identified as Indigenous.