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This first became an issue back in June after the final report was released. The inquiry claimed Indigenous women made up 25% of murder victims in Canada. The correct figure, though, is 25% of female murder victims – a much smaller number.

Over the last four years for which statistics are available, Statistics Canada reports there have been 2,381 homicides in Canada. In 655 of those cases (27.5%), the victims were female. And in 138, the female victim was Indigenous.

That means Indigenous women are about 6% of murder victims in Canada, not 25%. That is still high for a group that is just 4% of the population. But less than a two-fold over-representation is a far different problem than a six- or seven-fold discrepancy.

(As an aside, while 138 Indigenous women have been victims of murder over the most recent four-year period, 142 Indigenous women have been charged with murder during the same time.)

Another favourite statistic of the inquiry’s – Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to suffer violence – has proved to be vastly overestimated, too.

While the “12 times” stat was the very first figure cited in the inquiry’s official report and was repeated in several places in the report, the real number from Statistic Canada is closer to 2.7 times.

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Again, that’s a lot. It shows that, indeed, Indigenous women and girls are more vulnerable, more at risk than their non-Indigenous counterparts.

But a rate of two to three times as much is materially different from a rate of 12 times. (The “12 times” number seems to have come from a documentary rather than official sources.)