pc28����

Half of all of those charged in 2022 were concentrated in Toronto, Winnipeg (14) and two major prairie cities — Edmonton (9) and Saskatoon (5). The rest of the youth charged were spread out across the country in much smaller numbers.

Kaitlynn Mendes, an associate professor in sociology at Western University said that while the numbers are shocking they are less so when you consider the state of other indicators impacting youth, including their mental health.

“Young people are not OK,” Mendes said. “And it is leading to a rise in homicide and violent crimes.”

The statistics agency said homicides involving groups of young people can explain much of the increase last year. There were 19 cases where two or more youth were charged in 2022 compared to five on average over the previous decade; seven 2022 cases involved three or more young people.

pc28����was home to three of those cases, including the eight teenage girls who were charged last December with the death of a homeless man in a swarming attack downtown.

Youth-involved homicides are the “worst case scenario,” Mendes said, pointing to reported increases in non-violent issues, like anxiety and incidents of self-harm, that should be causing adults to take action.

And she pointed to a rise in violence reported at school, adding she hears from her own circles that the students engaging in violence increasingly include youth who have never before been considered at risk.

“I think it is very worrying,” she said. “It’s a really big reminder that we do need to take this very seriously.”

The previous peak for the number of youth accused of homicide was 86 in 2006, a time when pc28����was coming out of what became known as the “summer of the gun.” The previous year saw an abnormal spike in gang-related violence that culminated in the Boxing Day shooting of 15-year-old Jane Creba near the Eaton Centre — a case that led to a string of charges against several alleged gang members.

According to Statistics Canada, nearly one in five of the youths accused of homicide were involved in a gang-related incident in 2022.

The data is possible evidence of “what could be a troubling trend,” said University of pc28����professor Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, saying pandemic restrictions may have seen some suppression of violence in years prior to 2022 but that close attention needed to be paid to the spike in violence.

He also pointed to new Statistics Canada data that he said affirmed racialized people are overrepresented as homicide victims. In 2022, one-third of homicide victims were from a racialized population, that data showed.

“Significant efforts need to be made to ensure young people experience as little marginalization as possible,” he said, which means governments addressing the root causes of youth violence like unemployment, lack of housing and systemic racism.

Last April, police were called to the Glen Park area where they found 24-year-old Jaron Williams shot and without vital signs. A 17-year-old was charged with first-degree murder alongside a 19-year-old and two 20-year-olds.

That June, police were called to a plaza near Lawrence Avenue East and Mossbank Drive in Scarborough where they found 24-year-old Javonte Daley suffering from fatal gunshot wounds. The following month, two 16-year-olds were arrested and charged with first-degree murder along with a pair of 19-year-olds. Police have not publicly divulged what they believe happened in either group homicide.

And in December, police announced that eight girls were charged in the alleged killing of 59-year-old Kenneth Lee, near University Avenue and Front Street. Lee was living at a nearby shelter at the time of his death.

The year-over-year growth in youth-involved homicides — more than 170 per cent — far exceeds the overall growth in homicides last year, which Statistics Canada reported was 8 per cent higher than 2021.

Across Canada, there were 874 homicides last year. That is also the highest single-year total in Statistics Canada data, however, population growth explains some of the increase — the national rate of 2.25 homicides per 100,000 people was higher in most years from about 1970 through the early 1990s.

The Canada-wide total included five homicides of police officers, itself the most in nearly four decades.

“The homicide rate is widely considered a key metric for assessing the state of violence in society,” Statistics Canada read.

“Despite recent increases, homicides remain a rare event in Canada, accounting for less than 0.2 per cent of all police-reported violent crimes in 2022.”

Mendes said she hoped policymakers would see the numbers as a call to action, saying stable funding is needed for established organizations that work with youth. She said those youth workers are best placed to understand the current challenges.

“That’s at least one thing that I would hope to see them do in response to this.”