Candian View On Crime? (condos, crime rates, houses)

[Aiike]

I have been an avid reader in the Canada forum as I will be moving to Canada soon. Hence my intrest has varied on topic to topic on people, culture and crime. Recently though as you may have noticed on the forums there has been alot of talk on crime, and areas to be avoided as they have been labeled the "hood" of that city and so on.

However I wanted to ask Canadians this (in reference to your own towns / cities) what do you feel about your own city and its crime? I dont mean it in terms of stats. But you as a citizen do you feel safe in your own city. Is it safe in the day but horrible at night? Do you go out at night and feel abit anxious due to the people out and so on?

For expample i come from Australia (Melbourne) and in my city i have no problems heading out at night to a pub or to the local shopping centre. Sure there may be the odd boose hound who wants to "have a go" (aussie lingo) but nothing that may lead to trouble.
I hope you get the general feel for the question as I am really intrested to learn what yall think about your own city town and so on.

(p.s. sorry about the spelling errors and errors in grammar and long question)

[Acajack]

I think you will find the crime situation in Canada to be quite similar to what you are used to in Australia. Granted, there are some “dicey” areas in the larger cities, but this is true in Aussie cities as well.

Random, violent crime against innocent people minding their own business is extremely rare in Canada (even in the largest cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver), which explain why it makes for screaming headlines and public hysteria when it does happen.

[kattwoman2]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I think you will find the crime situation in Canada to be quite similar to what you are used to in Australia. Granted, there are some “dicey” areas in the larger cities, but this is true in Aussie cities as well.

Random, violent crime against innocent people minding their own business is extremely rare in Canada (even in the largest cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver), which explain why it makes for screaming headlines and public hysteria when it does happen.

I agree, I went to Toronto and Montreal and while I did see some shady homeless people in Toronto, I felt a lot safer in these cities than I do in some of the smaller American cities. In Montreal, I walked to metro station at 5 a.m., rode the metro to another station, and walked to the Via Rail station while it was dark and while I was a little cautious I felt a lot safer. I figured Toronto would be extremely dangerous, like NYC or DC, but my friend basically felt safe with me walking back to his house from a hostel I was hanging out at in the middle of the night. Granted, he was a little worried about us eating at some restaurants late at night since drunken fights can break out, but overall I felt pretty safe there even by myself (though I am also a black belt in Kempo).

As a comparison, when I was getting ready to go to DC, everyone was freaking out! People were telling me to take mase, a stun gun, get a concealed weapon's permit, avoid walking outside in DC late at night, only go to the NW part of DC and nowhere else, and a law enforcement officer told me that more people die in DC every year than in the Iraq War. I don't know how true these statistics are, but all I can say is that people were a lot less worried when I talked about Toronto and Montreal than when I talked about the American cities. Heck, even when I was living in a small town in Kentucky they were recommending women to not walk alone at night due to recent sexual assaults and people walking around wearing hockey masks and carrying crobars.

It's not like this everywhere in the U.S., but I do feel safer in Canada.

[ZX14TJ]

Originally Posted by kattwoman2

a law enforcement officer told me that more people die in DC every year than in the Iraq War.

More Canadians die in Calgary every year than in the Iraq war, but most were from natural causes

On the topic of safety, most, if not all, cities in the world have good parts and bad parts. Canadian cities are no different. As with any city in any part of the world, a person must be aware of their surroundings and be responsible for their own personal safety. Common sense goes a long way in keeping safe.

With all that said, Calgary has experienced its share of random violence on innocent people. That doesn't stop me from being comfortable in my own neighborhood at night.

[kattwoman2]

Originally Posted by ZX14TJ

More Canadians die in Calgary every year than in the Iraq war, but most were from natural causes

On the topic of safety, most, if not all, cities in the world have good parts and bad parts. Canadian cities are no different. As with any city in any part of the world, a person must be aware of their surroundings and be responsible for their own personal safety. Common sense goes a long way in keeping safe.

With all that said, Calgary has experienced its share of random violence on innocent people. That doesn't stop me from being comfortable in my own neighborhood at night.

LOL! You caught me on that one, but I think he meant in terms of violent deaths and he's not the only one that said it to me. DC has it's own metropolitan website where you can check the crime rates of each address and the areas surrounding it and even compare it to previous months/years. Are there any sites like this for Canadian cities? That might be a good way to tell about crime rates possibly if the OP wanted to compare and contrast.

[ZX14TJ]

Originally Posted by kattwoman2

LOL! You caught me on that one, but I think he meant in terms of violent deaths and he's not the only one that said it to me.

In 2006, Washington DC had 181 homocides.
Metropolitan Police Department: Data at a Glance

The only Canadian city that comes close to Washingin DC in terms of population is Toronto. Toronto had 84 homocides in 2007. In percentage terms, the difference is very significant. However, in terms of real numbers, the difference is only 97 occurances in metropolitan areas of over 5 million people!

As a point of reference, with approximately 5MM people in both the Toronto and Washington DC metro areas, a person has a 0.0017% chance of being killed in Toronto and a 0.0036% chance of being killed in DC. In either city, the average person has nothing to worry about

[Cornerguy1]

However, in terms of real numbers, the difference is only 97 occurances

Likely made quite a real difference for those 97 people, their families, and their friends.

[redturtle]

Generally speaking, in the big cities in Canada it's safer than the big cities in the US, but that doesn't mean its totally safe.

As others have said, being street smart and aware of your surroundings is the key.

The biggest crime problems in Canada are property crime - car theft, break ins, vandalism and so forth, which is especially a big issue in Vancouver.

Gun violence is becoming a big issue in places like Toronto and Vancouver, but it's mostly gang related especially in Vancouver (the reported homicides don't account for all the "he pulled a gun in the restaurant, shot at someone, but no life threatening injuries" that doesn't always get reported in the media). The shootings are highly targeted, but what can be scary is that it happens in public areas like restaurants, clubs, busy streets, etc. Vancouver on the whole is still safe, but it's the biggest port of entry for narcotics on the west coast and is like the west coast version of Miami (a large percentage of the heroin and marijuana in the US was smuggled in from Vancouver) and the violence stems from competing gangs fighting over territory. Lots of young men driving expensive sports cars, houses and condos being paid in cash, dodgy restaurants with no customers, etc.

Random violent crime like homicide and aggravated assault on innocent civilians is pretty rare, but get a bunch of drunken (or high) young men in their teens or 20s in the streets late at night anywhere in the world always has the potential to escalate into trouble, whether in Vancouver, Hamburg, London, or Detroit. I had a friend of a friend who got smacked on the head with a hammer on his way home from a bar one night - he woke up bandaged up (his skull was caved in and had to be operated).

And for women, sexual assault is always a concern no matter where you are in the world.

In Canada most of the time you just have to be street smart and you'll be fine - probably not as safe as Europe (don't know about Australia), but it's not Detroit or Philadelphia.

[ZX14TJ]

Originally Posted by Cornerguy1

Likely made quite a real difference for those 97 people, their families, and their friends.

I never stated or implied violent crime did not change the lives of victims or their families in profound ways.