OTTAWA – A new Statistics Canada report says homicides of Indigenous women and girls are less likely to result in the most serious murder charges than cases in which victims were non-Indigenous.
More than half of cases involving non-Indigenous women and girls between 2009 and 2021 resulted in charges of first-degree murder, but the offences of second-degree murder and manslaughter were more common when the victim was Indigenous.
StatCan says during that time period, Indigenous women and girls were killed at a rate six times higher than that of women and girls who were not Indigenous.
