Emokhare Paul Anthony
Daily Herald
The annual Crime Data release recently was significantly different this year after a push after leaders from 11 Western Canadian cities issued formal requests to Statistics Canada, halting the release of annual Crime Severity Index rankings until formal consultations are held with smaller communities and Indigenous leadership in Western Canadian municipalities.
The call-to-action stems from a full-day conference initiated by the City of North Battleford and held in Saskatoon.
“We are very encouraged that Statistics Canada took the concerns our municipalities brought forward at our conference in Saskatoon very seriously and we look forward to seeing the outcome of those discussions,” Mayor David Gillan said.
A series of changes have been planned by Statistics Canada in response to issues identified by a number of communities earlier this year with respect to the annual Crime Severity Index. The changes were of the annual data release by Statistics Canada later this week.
“There are two aspects to this year’s crime severity data, one is to the changes that happen where there was no ranking of communities of above 10,000 and above anymore,” said Gillian.
Since the last conference in Saskatoon in feb.29 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action related to the collection of data involving Indigenous victims of crime,
Sweetgrass First Nation Chief Lori Whitecalf said the annual release of the Crime Severity Index results in its own victimization of Firs Nations peoples.
“The crime severity index has gone up from 6.58 per cent compare to 2022,” said Gillian.
“Keeping in mind there are the crime severity index, the overall index, to violent and non violent crime severity indexes. The positive news is that the increase is much lower looking at Saskatchewan province,the rate of increase is slow which shows a positive sign,for instance the crime severity index for North Battleford was 6.58% last year compared to the year before 2022 of 16 per cent while the violent severity index report was 9.67 per cent but well over 20 per cent in the year before 2022,” said Gillian.
Chief Whitecalf challenged the Federal Government regarding to use of data from her community, which is protected, explaining there is a duty to consult First Nations to include their data in federal statistics which has not been done.
“For me, as mayor l see that our initiative in the community is working,we don’t just look at enforcement course that is what the police are there, to enforce someone who breaks the law but there is also the prevention of crime so we work with local volunteer initiative groups,
try to educate the public, all about security conscious,” Gillian said.
The 11 Western Canadian communities participated in a conference in Saskatoon on Feb. 29, 2024, the group has worked directly with Statistics Canada and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to further outline the impacts on communities which are
consistently identified as the top-ranked communities by the Crime Severity Index.
Statistics Canada confirmed to the City of North Battleford that several changes have been implemented by the organization to mitigate the concerns outlined by the communities and Indigenous leadership which were present at the conference.
“We do a lot of public relation and preventing crime,we have citizens volunteers on patrol on the city at night,these are some of the things we put in place in combating crime,”
The annual data release from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, which includes Crime Severity Index data was released in July 25.
“You see there are three aspect to serve,to have good police enforcement,to prevent crime and to address homelessness,alcohol,drugs addictions,with all these put in place we will have a brighter future and a safer community,” said Gillian.
editorial@paherald.sk.ca
