Canada's Social Crime Rate Soaring

New Toronto crime statistics revealed which neighbourhoods had the highest break-in rates last year. Christopher Eng Wong | Dreamstime 

"Incidents that were once rare, now frequently interrupt operations, put staff and customers at risk, and strain already limited resources."

"Many businesses have adopted informal safety protocols including having a buddy system, rules about who works late, who handles certain situations, and decisions about when to lock their doors." 

"In some cases, businesses keep their doors locked all day, allowing entry only by doorbell or appointment."

"[Nearly one-third of Canadian Federation of Independent Business members -- 29 percent -- informed poll surveyors] they do not report crimes because the process feels futile, time-consuming, or unlikely to result in meaningful followup."  

Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses crime survey 

Country-wide, there has been a steady increase, reported to police agencies, of incidents of organized shoplifting where  brazen groups of thieves stroll into stores  unmasked, take their time to fill baskets with thousands of dollars in merchandise, then calmly walk back out the door as though what they are doing is not unusual and there will be no penalties for outright theft. Often enough, they're right; such thefts are no longer unusual; their frequency and the panache and entitlement with which they're carried out, while leaving store personnel open-mouthed and customers scandalized, thieves fail to be apprehended.

 

The Your Independent Grocer on Bank Street in Ottawa's Centretown neighbourhood. Ottawa police say 12 people were arrested during 'Project Pantry' at the store in January. (Brad Quinn/CTV News Ottawa)

 

From store, laden down with stolen goods, to parking lot, to waiting vehicle and an orderly removal from shopping cart to open trunk, followed by a drive-away with pilfered goods. The CFIB report points out as well that retail staff are now increasingly exposed to personal threats, physical assaults and even confrontation with lethal weapons. Business employees, for their safety, are informed by their employers that it would be best not to confront the thieves, so they stand by, witness to thefts that defy the very essence of the social order.

 

The tragic, sobering encounter by Montreal depanneur owner Chong Woo Kim was a dangerously acute example of what outraged confrontation of a theft could lead to. Xavier Gellatly who stabbed the business owner to death, and held in his murder, was discovered to have committed an earlier murder in 2012, the result of a random stabbing. He was out of prison on full parole when his encounter with Chong Woo Kim made him a murderer two times over.

 

Handguns are pictured near recovered stolen cars during a Toronto Police Service press conference in Toronto, Ontario on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Police say the surge in auto thefts has led to rises in home invasions, violent robberies and gun violence throughout the Greater Toronto Area. (Greg Bruce/CBC)

 

A January Angus Reid Institute poll concluded that businesses were the front lines of a broad apprehension among Canadians in general, of diminished security and safety in Canada. "For those working in retail, shoplifting, verbal abuse, and physical threats have become the norm", read the poll conclusion. 

 

This, in a criminal justice system where overworked police forces make arrests, and when trials eventually take place, they witness with exasperation the justice system using a Liberal-government penal formula that allows for lax bail conditions, leading to frequently charged serial offenders who are streamed through an equally overworked justice system, are given paltry sentences barely reflecting the gravity of the crime committed and early release means that offenders feel free to continue their criminal activity with no penalizing incentives to cease and desist.

 

Private security details are now a common sight at retailers, banks and any number of businesses on high alert either because they've already suffered theft, or because of the general aura of apprehension among businesses in recognition of the splurge among criminal elements exercising their modus operandi with the assurance that penalties that accrue will be manageable as balanced against their gain. Grocers across Canada are equipping staff with body-cameras to help crack down on shoplifting and identification of employee assailants. 

 

Corporate Protection and Investigative Services President Ken Vongkham showing the lawn signs that they provide for their clients. Photo by PHOTO BY PETER J. THOMPSON /National Post

 

And nor are private homes exempt from these crime sprees. One of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Toronto, Rosedale, has been experiencing a rash of property crimes in recent years, with cars stolen from driveways, armed home invasions, families disturbed at night by sounds of breaking glass and housebreaking men shouting their intentions along with threats of compliance. Armed home invasions have become common occurrences. Perhaps there's a kind of irony in the fact that these wealthy urban communities are solidly politically Liberal.

 

They've taken to paying for private security patrols at night. One security company specializes in private K9 patrols: "Our use of canine accompaniment for all daily foot patrols enhances crime prevention by creating an obvious and natural deterrent", the website promises. Spiking levels of crime and street disorder is not confined to Toronto. Canada has become a country of high walls, bars on windows, security cameras at every doorway and private security patrols.

 

Manitoba, through the course of a year, added 900 new licensed private security guards. The number of licensed private security guards surged in Ontario by75 percent in the last six years. 92,615 licensed Ontario security guards in 2020, swelled to 162,320 by 2025. In North Battleford, Saskatchewan, a plan to hire teams of private security to patrol the downtown was approved by city councillors. 

 

In Kelowna, British Columbia, according to a 2025 Statistics Canada report on crime severity, the city was ranked as the fifth-highest-crime city in the country. To which designation, the city produced a detailed analysis of 2024 crime figures finding that 1,335 police files had been opened for only 15 repeat criminals. "The pattern of persistent criminality by this select group is staggering and relentless", the report pointed out.   

 

Ontario Provincial Police and the Canada Border Services Agency said they've seized 598 stolen cars that were destined for export at the Port of Montreal, during a news conference on April 3. The vehicles had an estimated value of $35.5 million dollars. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

 

 

Toronto's Crime and Defunded Police Dilemma

"Olivia Chow will defund the police, raise your taxes, and ram bike lanes on our busiest streets. As Mayor, I will hire more cops, freeze taxes, and get traffic moving."

"The choice is clear — it’s time to stop Olivia Chow."

"As former police chief, I had to deal with situations like this in the past [death threats]. But in that capacity, you have access to the tools and skilled investigators and the skill teams and resources necessary to really create the best plan."

"Under this circumstance [as a mayoral candidate] I don't have those privileges or accesses anymore. But my bigger concern really is for my staff."

Mark Saunders, former Toronto Police Chief, Toronto mayoralty candidate

 

"The suspect made threatening remarks about shooting mayoral candidates and showed what appeared to be a firearm."

"[The threats were made against] unnamed [mayoral candidates and represented a] blanket threat."

Const. Alex Li, spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service

Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow takes part in a televised debate hosted Marivel Taruc, at the CBC Broadcast Centre, in Toronto, on June 6, 2023. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

"Chow, the widow of former New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton, has been a prominent voice in progressive politics for decades. But her path to victory is no sure thing. A record 102 candidates — including one representing a dog named Molly —  are competing in this year’s election."

"Central Toronto’s left-leaning electorate rallied around Chow when she first ran for mayor in 2014, but despite a flood of positive polling at the race’s outset, she lost momentum in the final weeks of the campaign and placed a distant third."

Jacob Lorinc, Bloomberg News

 

"To some observers, it looks like they’ve seen this movie before: Olivia Chow gets an early lead but can’t sustain it, and gets overtaken by someone else in the field."    

"I think that’s going to be harder this time around. The issues are just more complicated and wide ranging."

"As we approach the finish line of this election, and depending on what the polls look like, there will be pressure within those different ideological camps to drop out and support another candidate whose orientation is fairly similar. And that could happen both on the right and the left."

Myer Siemiatycki, professor emeritus of politics, Toronto Metropolitan University

Toronto is in the throes of a mayoralty race. The election takes place in six days' time. The number of candidates for the position was astronomical, but has now, after weeks of campaigning, come down to a handful of potential winners. Crime, law and order is one of the biggest items to be addressed, and most, but certainly not all, candidates have made it a priority issue. It is an issue of great importance to Torontonians, and recognized as such by those candidates identified as 'right-wing'.

 

The leading contender for the position, long-time city councillor with the most-recognizable name is NDPer Olivia Chow, and polling has given her the lead, at 30% of the vote. Crime and punishment is not on her agenda. Many years ago when Olivia Chow and Jack Layton were both city councillors they lived in and had possession of another apartment meant for assisted living for low-income residents. This is the mayoralty candidate who now bemoans that city residents cannot afford to buy homes at astronomical real estate prices in the city.

 

Once known as Toronto the Good, the city can no longer boast of a low crime rate. Over the past few years car thefts including armed ones have been skyrocketing, their numbers in lock step with the reduction of funding for the metropolitan police force. A number of successive city budgets have seen a dramatic drop in funding for the police department and although the last budget saw an increase, it was targeted toward salaries, not the hiring of new recruits and improved services.

 

From left to right: Toronto mayoral candidates Ana Bailão, Brad Bradford, Olivia Chow, Mitzie Hunter, Josh Matlow and Mark Saunders at a debate at George Brown College on May 24, 2023. (Nav Rahi/CBC)

 

Toronto has been plagued with violence across the city, many taking place on the Toronto Transit service, in its subways primarily, committed by deranged street people stabbing innocent people to death, shoving unsuspecting people from subway platforms onto tracks below. These events happen elsewhere as well, but Toronto is Ontario's and Canada's most populous city at 2.6 million and rapidly growing, and the number of crimes has escalated dramatically, linked to drugs, gangs, homeless, the mentally challenged. 

Between 2017 and 2021, car thefts rose 90 percent and increased another 42 percent in the last year; just coincidentally a specialized stolen vehicle group was eliminated, leading to the situation where dozens of vehicles are stolen nightly in carjackings; car thefts with weapon up 288 percent in the last year alone. Organized crime has flourished in lock step with the defunding of the police budget. Apprehended thieves frequently are granted bail, leaving them the leisure to re-offend. It's called 'catch-and-release'.

Toronto is no longer a safe, placid, comfortable city in which to live. There was a 21.3 rise in homicides last year, with robberies increasing by a third. Priority 1 calls represented by shootings and murders now takes 21 minutes for a response. Over three times longer than the reasonable target time. Priority 2 calls, for serious crimes outside manslaughter is 50 minutes. Toronto Police Service failed to meet its target response time 72 percent of the time for Priority 1 calls and 92 percent for Priority 2 calls in 2021.

 

 

Current police Chief Myron Demkiw asserts that officers should arrive at a reasonable time to such emergencies, representative of the most fundamental commitment of the police force to ensure public trust, yet that goal has become unrealizable given the reality of the force's shrunken share of the municipal budget. There are now 600 fewer uniformed officers than in 2010, while every police officer struggles to serve 30 percent more residents as the population increases.

When auditor general Beverly Romeo-Beehler was commissioned last year to analyze where further cuts could be realized, it was her finding that Toronto is hugely underserved with officers for a city of its size. Without an investment of greater funding for policing, the situation would deteriorate even further, she advised. Leading mayoralty candidate Olivia Chow, on her past record, is expected to continue defunding the police. Two other candidates, also left-wing will commit to further defunding as well.

According to recently retired police chief James Ramer, more Torontonians have died as a result of votes to defund the police by councillors, among them those now running for city mayor. 

Three Toronto mayoral hopefuls, Matlow, Saunders and Bradford, indicated their campaign activities were disrupted on Thursday as police searched for a man who threatened to shoot several candidates. (Michael Wilson/CBC)