Table 12
Level of court and final decision in cases linked to police-reported homicides of Indigenous women and girls, Canada, 2009/10 to 2020/21


Table 12
Level of court and final decision in cases linked to police-reported homicides of Indigenous women and girls, Canada, 2009/10 to 2020/21
Table summary
This table displays the results of Level of court and final decision in cases linked to police-reported homicides of Indigenous women and girls. The information is grouped by Level of court and final decision in the case (appearing as row headers), All completed court cases, Completed court cases where there was a specific homicide charge, Indigenous women and girls and Non-Indigenous women and girls, calculated using number and percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Level of court and final decision in the caseTable 12 Note 3 All completed court cases Completed court cases where there was a specific homicide charge
Indigenous women and girlsTable 12 Note 1 Non-Indigenous women and girlsTable 12 Note 2 Indigenous women and girlsTable 12 Note 1 Non-Indigenous women and girlsTable 12 Note 2
number percent number percent number percent number percent
Adult criminal courts
Guilty 90 53 255 54 79 61 236 57
Acquitted 3 2 2 0 3 2 1 0
Stayed 33 19 35 7 20 16 25 6
Withdrawn/dismissed/discharged 39 23 138 29 21 16 112 27
Other 6 4 45 9 6 5 43 10
Total 171 100 475 100 129 100 417 100
Youth courts
Guilty 16 73 22 79 16 76 20 77
Acquitted 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Stayed 3 14 1 4 3 14 1 4
Withdrawn/dismissed/discharged 1 5 5 18 0 0 5 19
Other 2 9 0 0 2 10 0 0
Total 22 100 28 100 21 100 26 100
Adult criminal and youth courts
Guilty 106 55 277 55 95 63 256 58
Acquitted 3 2 2 0 3 2 1 0
Stayed 36 19 36 7 23 15 26 6
Withdrawn/dismissed/discharged 40 21 143 28 21 14 117 26
Other 8 4 45 9 8 5 43 10
Total 193 100 503 100 150 100 443 100
0 true zero or a value rounded to zero
Note 1

Indigenous victims are those identified by police as First Nations (Status or non-Status), Métis, Inuit, or an Indigenous identity where the Indigenous group was not known to police.

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Note 2

Non-Indigenous victims includes instances where police have confirmed that a victim is not identified as an Indigenous person.

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Note 3

Final decision is based on the most serious decision for any charge in the case. A case that has more than one charge is represented by the charge with the "most serious offence" (MSO). The most serious offence is selected using the following rules. First, court decisions are considered and the charge with the "most serious decision" (MSD) is selected. Court decisions for each charge in a case are ranked from most to least serious as follows: 1) guilty, 2) guilty of a lesser offence, 3) acquitted, 4) stay of proceeding, 5) withdrawn, dismissed and discharged, 6) not criminally responsible, 7) other, and 8) transfer of court jurisdiction. Second, in cases where two or more charges result in the same MSD (e.g., guilty), Criminal Code sentences are considered.

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Note: Indigenous identity is reported by the police and is determined through information found with the victim, such as Status cards, or through information supplied by the victims' families, community members, or other sources (i.e., such as band records, or forensic evidence such as genetic testing). Represents all completed cases where incidents successfully linked to at least one charge completed in adult criminal or youth courts in Canada between 2009/10 and 2020/21. The decision is determined at the accused level, refers to the most serious decision in the case, and, in instances where there were multiple victims, is applied to all victims in the case and not necessarily one specific charge or victim. Incidents may not have linked to courts data for multiple reasons, including survey coverage and time required to complete a case. See "Data sources and methodology" for more details about the linkage and methodology.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Homicide Survey and Integrated Criminal Court Survey (linked file).
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