NationStates Jolt Archive

On my way home from work today, my colleague, who gets a lift home most nights commented that he had seen in the paper that there had been 50 homicides in Montreal in the last year. He wanted my opinion as to why the homicide rate was so low there. (We are in Brazil, and the homicide rates here are much much higher in major cities.)

I could not think of any reason as to why Canada should be so much less violent than other New World countries. Can anyone explain this? (Not my inability to explain, but the low levels of violence)

Peace, Order and Good Government.

Two outta three ain't bad.

Plus, Poutine, Tim Horton's and Hockey to let out the aggression that causes murder.

It's a winning formula, what can I say?

I would assume Montreal is much more developed then Brazil.

For one thing, Canada isn't a "New World" country nearly as much as South American states are; it's a wholly different environment.

Montreal seems to have a low rate even for cities in Canada though... not sure about why that is.

If you were Canadian, or even Canadien, you'd know that all 50 victims were English Canadian, or simply Canadian. Quebec has officially declared revolution against English speakers, and the murders were just honest Canadiens live out their ideals. The 50 victims forgot that you had to fake being a Canadien while visiting Quebec, and were killed when there Canadian roots were discovered.

Had those 50 people not slipped up, there would have been no murders in Montreal.

It's the cannabis.

Well, I think a correlation can be made between Canada's high rates of pot use (apparently Quebec is even higher, or so I am told) and the low murder rate.

*puffs*

Seriously? I haven't the foggiest. There could be any number of reasons or factors why that is. Perhaps we take better care of our poor? Perhaps our culture discourages violence more than most modern cultures?

I got nothing for ya, except a smarmy comment and general shoulder shrugging.

For one thing, Canada isn't a "New World" country nearly as much as South American states are; it's a wholly different environment.

Montreal seems to have a low rate even for cities in Canada though... not sure about why that is.

OK

But what makes it a 'wholly different environment"?

I am not explicitly comparing it with Brazil, but with the rest of the New World , which includes the USA. It has to be, from my perspective, some specific set of cultural factors rather than environmental ones. So why is the Canadian (in general) and Montreal (in particular) culture so much less violent than say that of Detroit?

Our homicide rates are low because we're too busy freezin' our asses to shoot each other... (unless you're at the corner of Jane and Finch in which case, rain or snow, the bullets hail)

Our homicide rates are low because we're too busy freezin' our asses to shoot each other... (unless you're at the corner of Jane and Finch in which case, rain or snow, the bullets hail)

I Still believe that the solution to violence in the middle east is lots and lots of snow. (And Tim Hortons.)

Just the way our culture developed, we take better care of the poor and this: :sniper: is unexceptable. We don't have the USA-type gun nuts, here those who own guns are typically labeled as gun nuts. Like a thread about a month back was saying: you have to remove gun culture, not just guns.

I Still believe that the solution to violence in the middle east is lots and lots of snow. (And Tim Hortons.)

Or beer.

Peace, Order and Good Government.

I can't believe you just cited the POGG.

It's terribly impolite to kill other people. It's just not Canadian.

For one thing, Canada isn't a "New World" country nearly as much as South American states are; it's a wholly different environment.



Um...Canada is as 'new world' as the rest of the Americas. Different 'environment' notwithstanding.

It's terribly impolite to kill other people. It's just not Canadian.A winner is you.

I Still believe that the solution to violence in the middle east is lots and lots of snow. (And Tim Hortons.)

They better rename the Fruit Explosion then. ;)

Doesn't Canada (especially Quebec) have lower rates of poverty?

Doesn't Canada (especially Quebec) have lower rates of poverty?

And yet...let's look at Toronto, with some of the oldest ghettos in North America. It has a lower per capita homicide rate than Edmonton, Regina or Winnipeg.

And yet...let's look at Toronto, with some of the oldest ghettos in North America. It has a lower per capita homicide rate than Edmonton, Regina or Winnipeg.
To be fair to Edmonton, the police commit allot of their homicides.

To be fair to Edmonton, the police commit allot of their homicides.
Back that up, thanks.

Or I'll put a cap in your ass.

Ladies, please.

Rather than bitch about this city or that, or even than crowing about how much better Canada in general is than the rest of the Americas, I still have nothing more concrete than an "It wouldn't be Canadian" and "It must be the pot".

Any real ideas as to why Canada is less violent?

Back that up, thanks.

Or I'll put a cap in your ass.
Um, actually you were my source on this one. Something about hobos being relocated in the middle of winter...

Ladies, please.

Rather than bitch about this city or that, or even than crowing about how much better Canada in general is than the rest of the Americas, I still have nothing more concrete than an "It wouldn't be Canadian" and "It must be the pot".

Any real ideas as to why Canada is less violent?

Violence is impolite.

Any real ideas as to why Canada is less violent?
Lots of factors:
More pacifist-type people who think that violence is bad, and teach their kids just that.
Better city planning and management, better public spaces and facilities.
Most likely better policing.
Plus I think it's a self-reinforcing thing. If you've never seen violence beyond a fistfight, you're not going to suddenly stab or shoot people.

Lots of factors:
More pacifist-type people who think that violence is bad, and teach their kids just that.
Better city planning and management, better public spaces and facilities.
Most likely better policing.
Plus I think it's a self-reinforcing thing. If you've never seen violence beyond a fistfight, you're not going to suddenly stab or shoot people.
Who hasn't seen violence beyond a fistfight?

Who hasn't seen violence beyond a fistfight?
Don't take me too literally...:p

Rather than bitch about this city or that, or even than crowing about how much better Canada in general is than the rest of the Americas, I still have nothing more concrete than an "It wouldn't be Canadian" and "It must be the pot".

Any real ideas as to why Canada is less violent?

Please...like we have any clue. You didn't seriously come here for info did you?

Google it!

Um, actually you were my source on this one. Something about hobos being relocated in the middle of winter...

Yeah, but those aren't reported as homocides. Not even as hobocides actually.

I can't believe you just cited the POGG.

It's terribly impolite to kill other people. It's just not Canadian.

Why not cite the POGG? It is, after all, a passage in the text of the Constitution Act of 1867?

As to why murder rates are lower here - How do you distill an entire culture into a sound byte?

MOST of us are not brought up to glorify violence. Most of us would be hard pressed to come up with a realistic list of reasons we might consider killing someone as reasonable besides immediate self defence. And given that most people don't own handguns, disagreements that turn violent are generally within the realm of fistfights. And it's pretty damn hard to kill someone with your hands for most people. Our rate of rifle ownership is pretty high, but people use them for hunting and don't store them with pride on display. They are locked away properly in a bin in the garage along with the rest of the camping equipment. The fancy glass display cabinet for someone's aresenal? You just don't see that up here.

Our social programs also limit the number of people who fall to such a state of poverty and despair that they toss away their ethical base. Yes, property crime still exists, but that case of the desperate person needing to become a career criminal just to survive is a rarity.

You give people something to live for, and they tend to want and respect their lives - and those around them. You treat them as disposable comodities and they take that lesson to heart too.

So far in Ottawa this year when last I checked, we have had seven murders. Three of those were a triple homocide assumed to be mob related as it was a judge, his wife, and a visiter where the judge was involved in the case that put away one of Montreal's top Mob bosses. The investigation is still ongoing.

So, four other murders in over six months.

I kinda like living in a city where I don't fear for my life walking down the road at night.

I can't explain why it is that way, except that it is. And nobody really wants that to change.....maybe that's the incentive that keeps it going. Who knows.

[...] unexceptable. [...]

{sigh} Unfortunately, while we set a better cultural standard than the US for gun violence, Americans' bad spelling has started to rub off across the border :-P

[...] Most of us would be hard pressed to come up with a realistic list of reasons we might consider killing someone as reasonable besides immediate self defence. [...]


I would contend that you've never driven in Fredericton, NB. Here the challenge is to find good reasons not to kill other drivers... no turn signals, no attention to lights, half are too polite, the other half too inconsiderate, mostly timid little idiots who need a vast ocean of clear highway before they'll risk making a turn (and then use every lane in sight to make said turn)... seriously, very little makes me want a gun (and a liscence to clean up the road) more.