Why So Much Violence In Mid Canada?

[Markxxx]

From Canada.Com

Prairie politicians bridled at their towns being named Canada’s most crime-plagued cities in a recent survey by Maclean’s magazine.

The study places Saskatoon atop a short list of the Canadian cities with the highest crime rates, based on 2007 statistics - just ahead of Winnipeg, Regina, Prince George, B.C., and Edmonton.

Full Story [URL=“http://www2.canada.com/news/saskatoon+highest+crime+rates+canada/1358203/story.html?id=1358203”]

I would think Montreal or Toronto or some other big city would have a higher rate. Now I realize Regina and Saskatoon are much smaller so there is MORE CRIME in cities like Toronto but because there is more people the RATE is lower.

But that aside it seems to be the worst cities are consentrated in mid Canada. What’s up with that?

[Cat_Fight]

I was pretty shocked when someone forwarded me this. It just sounds harmless, doesn’t it? Saskatoon? I checked out a few more articles and couldn’t find any theories about the crime rate, until I hit something on the CBC.

But numbers only tell part of the story, said Regina Metis elder Shirley Bonk.

Racism and a lack of education lie at the root of the high crime rates, said Bonk, who was imprisoned for murder before turning her life around.

There’s not really any way to sugarcoat it. First Nations Canadians in the area are dealing with generations of drug addiction and alcoholism, sexual and physical abuse (both from within and outside their tribes) and abject poverty, all with a nice sprinkling of formerly-institutionalized racism. All the makings of classic, violent ghetto life.

[kushiel]

But there’s also a difference in the type of violence and who it happens to. I live in Saskatoon and I know that if I stay out of the alphaghetto (an affectionate term for the part of the city that has lettered avenue names) and don’t hang around with the people typically involved in gangs it’s just as safe as anywhere else.

The violence is highly gang-related. People get stabbed at house parties in the bad parts of town when they screw with the wrong people. I was shocked when I heard about the recent shooting in Vancouver in the parking lot of a Boston Pizza in a well-to-do-looking neighborhood.

And yes, that means that there is a high proportion of crimes committed by Aboriginals, as Cat Fight mentioned above. But if you stay out of the nasty business, it won’t affect you.

[Vincent007]

Because in this region there are a lot of Native Canadians. They’re the most impoverished, and at risk for crimes compared to any group in Canada. Some of their “ghettos” might even surprise Amoricans, but still the worse places in America are tons worse I reckon. Just the whole way the laws, prisons n stuff in general makes it a shittier life in America. Health care really is better here unless you’re rich, and we don’t have like 4500 shootings per year like Chicago

[Mallard]

I’m in Saskatchewan as well and the crimes by the aboriginal population is off the charts in this province.

Downtown saskatoon you make sure you are only ever on well travelled sidewalks.