Researchers fill data gap on police-involved killings

Joanne MacIsaac recalls the day in 2013 when she found out police had shot and killed her brother Michael.

"Something like that changes you," MacIsaac said.

Michael MacIsaac was shot dead by a Durham police officer while running naked through his Ajax, Ont., neighbourhood and wielding a metal table leg — a psychological episode related to his epilepsy, according to his family. 

MacIsaac was one of 24 people killed in an incident involving use of force by police that year, according to data now available online and dating back to 2000 thanks to the Tracking (In)Justice project.

Since then, Joanne MacIsaac has pushed for changes to police training in de-escalation and mental health, and has urged police forces across the country to track instances where use of force leads to death.

"When these numbers are not tracked, it's a lot easier to dismiss the magnitude of the problem," she said.

"When government can tell you how many moose there are on the island of Newfoundland but they can't tell you how many people have lost their lives at the hands of police — yeah, I think that it's an intentional omission."

The project was led by university researchers, community groups and civil liberties advocates.

Their numbers show 704 people have been killed in incidents involving police use of force in Canada since 2000, an average of more than 30 per year.

The number of people who died after encounters with police has risen annually since 2018, when there were 32 such deaths, and doubled from 2019 (34 deaths) to 2022 (69 deaths).

Alexander McClelland, a professor of criminology at Carleton University and the project lead, said the work started because there's no government body or other institution tracking this information.

McClelland said it's difficult to understand why those numbers are rising, even as police face more scrutiny when it comes to violence.

"Because of a consistent lack of transparency, a consistent lack of available and consistent data from policing agencies, we can't answer some basic questions like this one," he said.

"We're hoping that this data sparks conversations and gets people looking further into why there has been a potential increase, what that means, and brings more scrutiny to the issue."