The rate of firearm-related homicides in Canada reached its lowest point in almost 50 years last year, according to new data.
In fact, of the 598 homicides reported in Canada in 2011, 35 per cent were stabbing-related, while 27 per cent were shooting-related, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday. Beatings and strangulations accounted for most of the remaining cases.
Overall, there were 44 more homicides nationwide in 2011 compared to the year before — the first increase in three years — with Alberta and Quebec driving the increase.
But while the homicide rate went up seven per cent last year, it has remained “relatively stable” over the past decade, Statistics Canada said.
Ron Melchers, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, said Tuesday the decline in the rate of firearm-related homicides — particularly involving rifles and shotguns — and the relatively stable rate of stabbings has been a long-term trend.
A lot of homicides are spur-of-the-moment between people who are drinking or involved in the drug trade and take place inside homes where knives are more easily accessible than firearms, he said.
A crackdown by police agencies on gangs and criminal organizations could also be having the effect of decreasing the demand for guns, he said.
Statistics Canada reported that the increase in homicides in 2011 was driven largely by two provinces: Alberta (which saw 32 more killings compared to the year before) and Quebec (which saw 21 more killings).
By contrast, the homicide rate in Ontario, which saw 28 fewer homicides in 2011, reached its lowest point since 1966.
Overall, Manitoba saw the highest homicide rate for the fifth year in a row, followed by Saskatchewan and Alberta.
The violence in the prairies can be attributed to a number of factors, including the migration of job-seeking young men “out west,” a higher-stakes drug trade, displacement from rural areas and increasingly marginalized populations — particularly from aboriginal communities — in urban centres, Melchers said.
There were 95 gang-related homicides in 2011, about the same as the year before. While gang–related homicides rose in the 1990s, it reached a peak in 2008 (that year saw 138 cases), and has since declined, Statistics Canada noted.
Homicide victims typically know their killers. Of the homicide cases solved in 2011, almost half of the victims were killed by an acquaintance or friend and one-third were killed by a family member. Only 15 per cent were killed by a stranger.
Police reported 89 homicides involving intimate partners in 2011. Thirty-six per cent of these cases involved married couples, another 36 per cent involved common-law couples and 26 per cent involved dating partners.
The rate of intimate-partner homicides has remained stable in recent years, Statistics Canada said.
Read more:
http://www.canada.com/Firearm+relat...nada+reports/7651344/story.html#ixzz2LYJxMWPa
I just so happened to read it the same way backbacon did, that is why I made the invasion remark. 
