Media Release

March 13, 2007, The Vancouver Board of Trade

Board calls on Dion for action against crime

The Vancouver Board of Trade today called on Opposition Leader Stéphane Dion to deal with Canada’s increasing crime problem currently hidden by inaccurate statistics.

In his introduction of Dion, who gave a major breakfast speech to The Board on his national tour, Jason McLean, Board of Trade director and president and CEO of The McLean Group, said The Board's priorities include a number of issues such as sustainability, the Pacific Gateway and federal fiscal responsibility, but that today it would like to share its perspective on the issue of crime in Canada. He outlined how more than a decade’s research by The Board’s Crime Task Force has revealed that Canada has some of the highest crime rates of all OECD countries and that data currently used to measure crime is inaccurate.

"The truth is that the majority of crimes are never reported to police… and therefore never recorded. The fact is backed up in a recent report from Statistics Canada which warns that only one-third of crimes are ever reported."

The Board of Trade says Criminal Victimization Surveys undertaken by Statistics Canada, the U.S. Justice Department and the United Nations show a much more serious picture. According to Statistics Canada, there were more than eight million criminal offences in Canada in 2004, directly affecting one person in four. Of these, more than 2.7 million were violent crimes inflicting over 650,000 physical injuries.

"These numbers, by an measure, are too high. And, they are not getting better. In fact, much of violent crime is getting worse. This year alone, one in ten Canadians will be a victim of violent crime," McLean said. The United Nations International Crime Victims Survey of 17 industrialized countries placed Canada in the high-risk group for violent contact crimes and worse than the U.S. where the violent crime rate has dropped significantly since 1999.

The Board called for funding to allow Statistics Canada to carry out criminal victimization surveys on an annual basis as in the U.S. rather than every five years, along with changes in the criminal code and sentencing guidelines. "We need your help and the help of all political parties to fix a broken system," McLean said. The breakfast program was sponsored by Vancouver Film Studios.

For further information, contact Terry Hadley, communications director, The Vancouver Board of Trade, at 604-641-1271.

Related material:

• View Crime Briefing Notes (PDF/359kb)
• Read event summary: Dion hints at federal police funding as key to fighting crime in pre-budget speech
  

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