Women and children represent more than half of homicide victims in Ottawa in 2024, according to the Ottawa Police Service (OPS). Police investigated the murders of 25 people last year, breaking the record set in 2016.
Between 2001 and 2015, the city of Ottawa recorded an average of 10 homicides per year. In 2016, the average increased to 15 per year.
In 2024, 40% of homicide victims were women, i.e. 6 adults and 4 girls. Men, for their part, made up 60% of the victims, i.e. 11 adults and 4 boys. Racialized people made up 76% of the victims.
The year was difficult due to the high number of victims
says the staff sergeant of the Homicide Unit of the SPOJeff Pilon.
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Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Homicide Unit Staff Sergeant Jeff Pilon.
Photo: - / Francis Deschênes
Homicides that left their mark in 2024
In March, six people, including four young children, were stabbed to death in a house in the Barrhaven neighborhood south of Ottawa. A 19-year-old student was arrested and charged in this case.
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Residents of the Barrhaven neighborhood have struggled to come to terms with the shock of the murders of four young children, their mother and a family friend last March. (Archive photo)
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In October, a mother was stabbed to death in front of her two children in a park south of Ottawa. The accused, a 36-year-old Montrealer, was in a marital relationship with a member of the victim’s family. This murder was described as femicide by the police.
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Ottawa residents have paid tribute to the woman who was stabbed in a park last October. (Archive photo)
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Femicides at the forefront
The SPO became the first police department in the country to classify a murder as femicide after years of calls from women’s rights groups. For the moment, the Ottawa police have done this twice and could decide to qualify other criminal cases as femicide after the fact in order to better measure this social problem.
At the local level, [pour] the investigation unit, it’s a murder, it’s a homicide. We will investigate to the last degree, regardless of the victims
adds Mr. Pilon.
The Homicide Unit is also seeing that the accused in murder cases are getting younger and younger.
Moreover, 8 minors were killed in 2024.
We have children committing murder and being murdered, which is unacceptable in many ways
declared Mr. Pilon.
Despite an increase in the number of murders, Staff Sergeant Pilon maintains morale.
We live in a system of laws and we try to hold people accountable for their actions
term-t-il.
With information from Shaamini Yogaretnam, CBC News
