MURDER RATE SPIKES DESPITE DROP IN VIOLENT CRIME

622 Homicides Reported In 2004, A 12% Increase From Previous Year

Canada's murder rate was up last year but the country's overall crime
rate dipped one per cent, Statistics Canada reported yesterday.

The agency said the decrease in the national crime rate was driven
largely by a five-per-cent decrease in Ontario's rate, stemming
mostly from significant decreases in reported crime in the large
metropolitan areas of Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa and St. Catharines-Niagara.

By contrast, the national murder rate climbed 12 per cent to a total
of 622 homicides after hitting a 36-year low in 2003. Still, the rate
of 1.9 murders for every 100,000 population was five per cent lower
than it was 10 years earlier.

Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec accounted for most of the
increase, while Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver reported the highest
murder rates among the country's nine major metropolitan areas, the
agency said. Quebec City and Ottawa reported the lowest.

Among smaller centres, Regina, Abbotsford, B.C., and Saskatoon
recorded the highest rates.

The statistics, based on reports from police forces across the
country, confirm a trend -- with the exception of an increase in 2003
- -- of declining crime rates since 1991. The crime rate in 2004 was 12
per cent lower than a decade earlier, StatsCan said.

The agency said a total of 300,000 violent crimes were reported in
2004, the majority of which were common assault. The rate, down two
percentage points from last year, was 10 per cent lower than a decade
ago, but 24 per cent higher than 20 years ago.

The rate of robberies with firearms continued to decline, as it did
for property crimes, vehicle thefts and counterfeiting.

The rate of violent crime among youth, those aged 12 to 17, also fell
off, dropping two per cent. There was a 30-per-cent decline in the
youth homicide rate and a two-per-cent decrease in the robbery rate.

By contrast, drug incidents were on the upswing last year, rising 11
per cent after declining seven per cent in 2003. Cannabis possession
incidents climbed 15 per cent, cocaine-related incidents increased 17
per cent and the number of grow-operation incidents in 2004 was
8,000, more than double the 3,400 incidents reported a decade earlier.