A recent story from Maclean’s magazine is reporting that Hawkesbury is among the top 100 most dangerous places to live in Canada — based on a report it prepared which ranks communities according to the Crime Severity Index (CSI), a Statistics Canada tabulation of all crime reported by police. The seriousness of offenses and the volume of crime is used to calculate the CSI. Data from 2018 was released in July 2019, according to the report.

Hawkesbury’s rating is 68 of 237 cities included in the report. And this takes into consideration that the town’s CSI is 90, while the Canadian average is 75.01.

With a 2013 CSI of 94.1, the town has a 4.52 reduction in its CSA compared to 2013.

All categories of crime are listed, but Hawkesbury’s higher ratings are focused on a few areas of crime, notably in drug-related incidents, fraud and assault. Incidents of robbery and break and enter incidents are lower than the Canadian average.

The assault rate in Hawkesbury is 687.45 ( all figures are per 100,000 population) , compared to 457.01 in Canada, making the rate of assault in Hawkesbury 50 per cent higher than the Canadian average.

Likewise, fraud incidents in Hawkesbury are 244 per cent higher than the Canadian average, which is 349.2 incidents per 100,000 population. In Hawkesbury, that rate is 852.05.

Hawkesbury also scores higher when it comes to cannabis trafficking or production. With a score of 38.73, compared with the Canadian average of 22.5 incidents per 100,000 population, Hawkesbury’s rate is 72 per cent higher than the Canadian average.

Drug offenses much higher than Canadian average

When it comes to cocaine trafficking or production, Hawkesbury’s 77.46 incidents per 100,000 population puts it at 286 per cent higher than the Canadian average of 20.03 incidents per 100,000 population.

The same story plays out for other controlled drugs, trafficking or production. Hawkesbury’s score of 125.87 is almost 300 per cent higher than the Canadian average rate, which is 31.58 incidents per 100,000 population.

On the up side, Hawkesbury scores lower on the number of robberies and break and enter incidents, scoring about 43 per cent lower than the Canadian average for break and enter incidents, for example.

You can read the Maclean’s article here.