StatCan reveals new data on mass casualty victims, accused

The shooting in Tumbler Ridge is among the deadliest mass casualty events in Canadian history.

Men and boys were most often the victims and suspects in mass casualty events in the country, according to new information released by Statistics Canada on Thursday.

Out of 26,634 victims of mass casualty events from 2010 to 2024, 62 per cent were men and boys. Meanwhile, they comprised 48 per cent of victims of overall violent crime.

For the 14-year period, nearly eight in 10 (78 per cent) of those accused in mass casualty events were men and boys. The total accused was 7,402 individuals. When it comes to violent crime overall, 77 per cent of the accused were men and boys.

The data was published Thursday in an article in StatCan’s Juristat journal. The article delves into the nature and prevalence of mass casualty events in Canada, using police-reported data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.

Mass casualty events are considered “intentional acts of violence” in which at least four victims died or suffered minor or major physical injury.

Injuries and deaths

Women and girls made up 38 per cent of victims of mass casualty events, while they comprised 46 per cent of victims who died.

A greater proportion of women and girls (1.2 per cent) died from mass casualty events, compared to men and boys (0.8 per cent). Between 2010 and 2024, 256 victims died.

Major injuries (6.4 per cent) and deaths (one per cent) were “relatively rare.”

Most mass casualty victims suffered minor injuries (88 per cent) and nearly all were physically injured at 96 per cent.

Other trends found in data

From 2010 to 2024, there were 5,475 mass casualty events, 3.3 per cent of which involved at least four victims who suffered significant physical injury or died.

Mass casualties made up only 0.1 per cent of nearly 5.2 million incidents of police-reported violent crimes for this period. The information refers to incidents of police-reported violent crime, excluding criminal negligence causing bodily harm or death.