As Justice Critic for the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba I receive many calls every week regarding the system of justice in our province and country. Over the course of my six years as an MLA, I have received hundreds of calls that offered suggestions and expressed frustration with how our legal system works.
Over all of those years and hundreds of calls, I have yet to receive a single call from anyone saying that they feel that Manitoba is a safer place today than it has ever been before. In fact, almost universally, the opinion is that the City of Winnipeg and the province as a whole is seeing more violence and crime today than every before.
The hundreds of calls of concerns I have received were confirmed by the annual crime numbers released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday which showed that Manitoba leads the country in crimes like murder and auto theft and was second in assaults and sexual assaults. The statistics clearly indicate that relative to the rest of the country, our province is, unfortunately, struggling to contain violence committed by criminals.
Looking at the overall numbers, some might have found it surprising that while Manitoba led the country in most violent and serious crime categories, overall the numbers suggested that crime was down from last year. Hardly anyone I speak with in either Winnipeg or Manitoba believes that crime has gone down recently so why would the numbers indicate a decrease?
The answer likely lies in the fact that the statistics Canada numbers only reflect crime that is reported to police officers. Unless a victim of crime fills out a police report, that crime is not counted.
It is well known that at least 30% of all crimes in our province are going unreported and therefore do not show up in the annual reporting. The number is likely growing as victims of crime see little value in filling out police reports because they either believe the criminal will not be caught or if they are caught, that they won’t face any real consequences. This frustration with the justice system results in more and more crimes going unreported.
In the United States, victimization surveys are frequently used. These are just random telephone surveys that ask people if they have been a victim of crime in the past 12 months regardless if they reported it to police or not. These victimization surveys portray a much more accurate picture of crime.
The annual crime report confirms that crime in Manitoba is, relative to other parts of Canada, a very serious problem. Just as serious is the fact that frustration with the justice system has reached a level where many victims simply don’t bother to report crime anymore.
