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an hour ago
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Auto theft sees sharp drop in first half of 2025, industry association says
OTTAWA — The pace of auto theft is dropping in Canada thanks to collective efforts to crack down on thieves, says an industry group focused on insurance fraud and crime. Équité Association said in a report released Monday that the number of vehicles reported stolen nationally dropped 19.1 per cent in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Just over 23,000 vehicles were reported stolen in the first six months of the year in Canada, the report said. The decline is particularly stark in Ontario and Quebec, which saw annual drops of 25.9 per cent and 22.2 per cent, respectively. The year-over-year drops are more modest in Atlantic Canada and Western Canada at roughly nine per cent. Alberta saw a decline of 12.5 per cent. Bryan Gast, national vice-president of investigative services at Équité Association, credits greater public awareness of the threat and efforts by various levels of government and law enforcement agencies to collectively tackle the problem. "It's really definitely a collaborative effort," he said. Gast said law enforcement agencies in Ontario and Quebec in particular have stepped up enforcement with police units dedicated to vehicle theft. So far this year, residents of Ontario and Quebec have reported 9,600 and 3,889 vehicle thefts respectively — high numbers that Gast attributed to the provinces' larger populations and proximity to the Port of Montreal. With 4,411 vehicles reported stolen over the first half of 2025, Gast said Alberta continues to lead the country in auto theft on a per-capita basis. Statistics Canada data released earlier this week confirms national progress on the file. The agency reported a 17 per cent annual drop in the rate of police-reported motor vehicle thefts, down to 239 incidents per 100,000 people last year. In 2023, the number of auto thefts had increased 40 per cent over the historic low recorded in 2020, StatCan said. That trend came to a head last year when the federal government convened a summit in February to address car thefts. Ottawa followed up by giving the Canada Border Services Agency millions of dollars in new funding to track vehicles leaving through the country's ports, after having given Ontario $121 million in January of that year to tackle gang crime and auto thefts. Gast said some of the progress can likely be attributed to Canadians' heightened awareness of the issue. "Now I think you can talk to anybody and, if their car hasn't been stolen, they know somebody's car that has been stolen," he said. "I think they are taking those precautions and some of those steps to make their vehicle less of a target." Vehicle recovery rates also rose 3.4 percentage points year over year to 56.5 per cent in the first half of 2025, Équité Association said. The organization said that was nearing the "pre-crisis" level of 57.2 per cent recorded in 2021. Despite progress on vehicle theft, the Insurance Bureau of Canada warned it's still a "significant concern" and "far from the only factor contributing to rising auto insurance costs." "A combination of inflation, tariffs, rising repair and vehicle replacement costs, legal pressures, and regulatory challenges are driving rates up across the country," the bureau said in a media statement. Tariffs on vehicle parts are driving up the costs of repairs and replacement cars, the bureau noted. Gast said that while it's not clear yet, tariffs might be playing a role in the increase Équité Association is seeing in domestic chop shops and vehicle parts being sent overseas. He said that whenever there's a disruption to supply chains — like the one that made semiconductor inputs a hot commodity during the COVID-19 pandemic — the criminal element tends to adapt to meet that demand. While he's encouraged by the progress Canada has posted to date in tamping down auto theft, he said now is not the time to let up. "Don't consider the problem solved," he said. "To keep it manageable and the numbers trending in the right direction, I think we still need to focus on it." This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2025. Craig Lord, The Canadian Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 hours ago
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Two-time killer who targeted Calgary street sex workers to be sentenced
A Calgary man who's now killed two women who worked in the city's sex trade will be handed a life sentence today, 16 years after he strangled his first victim. Earlier this month, Christopher Dunlop, 50, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2023 death of Judy Maerz, 58. Dunlop had recently finished serving his 13-year manslaughter sentence for strangling Laura Furlan when he stabbed Maerz 79 times and then set her body on fire. At the time of her death, Maerz was living a vulnerable lifestyle. She struggled with drug addiction and poverty but had managed to secure an apartment. It was her first home in 12 years. The night she was killed, Maerz spent time with a friend before she headed out to the Forest Lawn stroll. In the early morning hours of Feb. 16, 2023, Dunlop picked her up, drove her to the Deerfoot Athletic Park and attacked her. After fatally stabbing Maerz and slitting her throat, Dunlop doused her body in gasoline and set it on fire. But while he attempted to destroy DNA evidence left on Maerz's body, Dunlop left some behind. The evidence presented at trial suggested Maerz "fought for her life," according to prosecutors Hyatt Mograbee and Greg Piper. In the course of the struggle, Dunlop cut his hand. His blood, left in the melting snow, ultimately led police to arrest the two-time killer. Comments made by Dunlop to undercover police officers during the Furlan investigation help to explain his choice of victims. Dunlop told undercover officers that on the night he killed Furlan, he'd set out to kill someone "who wouldn't be missed." When Dunlop went looking for his second victim years later, he likely thought the same thing. Court of King's Bench Justice Colin Feasby noted in his conviction decision that Dunlop likely believed police wouldn't thoroughly investigate the murder of a street sex worker. Dunlop was wrong. He now faces life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
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Top tips to avoid bike theft, and what to do if it happens to you
It's a gut-wrenching moment — going to hop on your bike, only to discover it's not where you left it, even though you locked it. Anna Schlieneber knows the feeling all too well. "I locked my bike up. It had a U-lock and a cable lock on it, but I guess it didn't secure it well enough because when I came back down it was gone," she said. It happened last weekend, sometime during the 90 minutes that Schlieneber was visiting a friend in Centretown. "It's kind of violating. It's a piece of property that I really value. Like I use it for exercise, for activity, for getting around downtown, and it's just really upsetting," she said. Ottawa police say bike thefts in the city were actually on the decline from 2018 until last year, when they started ticking back up. "[In 2018] we were at an average of about 1,700 bikes stolen per year — and keep in mind, this is just what's reported and the information that we have — versus now we're seeing about 1,400," Const. Derek Thompson told CBC. Thompson works with the Ottawa Police Service's central neighborhood resource team, and says Centretown is still the city's hot spot for bike theft. But it can happen anywhere, especially without the right precautions. How to avoid bike theft Here are Thompson's best tips to prevent your prized possession from being stolen: Lock your bike in a visible public area. "Choose well-lit, very open, highly visible areas with ... very visible bike racks, bike racks that are fixed and immovable," Thompson advised. "What we want to do is create a situation where it certainly doesn't give them an opportunity to spend a lot of time working to defeat that locking mechanism." Use a hardy lock. The most reliable kind of lock is made of high-grade steel, which is much more difficult to sever with bolt cutters or other tools. Lock it up properly. Thompson said the best method is to loop the lock through the front wheel and bike frame, then secure it to a fixed rack or similar object. For extra protection, secure the back wheel with a second lock if possible. Register your bike with 529 Garage. It's a free anti-theft app that lets you upload a photo of your bike, the serial number and any other unique features to help identify it. Police use the app frequently to help reconnect recovered bikes with their owners. "It is a go-to resource for us to be able to identify whether a bike is stolen, and to immediately connect with the owner of that property," Thompson said. You can pick up a sticker to indicate your bike has been registered at Ottawa police headquarters on Elgin Street or through 529 Garage. What to do if your bike is stolen Thompson said if you witness a bike theft in progress, call 911. Don't call the non-emergency line or report online. Don't engage with the thief, but if possible take photos or videos of them in the act to help in any police investigation. If your own bike is stolen, Thompson said the best course of action is to file an official police report. Follow these steps, he said, and you just might see your stolen bike again. "Sometimes the greatest rewards in our job are returning something that's extremely valuable to somebody's possession, and the smiles on their faces, endless expressions of gratitude. I mean, those are what really makes our day," Thompson said.
