Hi there,
just when i thought the wife was begining to agree with me that Canada is a far safer environment than UK. Yes i did show her some reports of various persons claiming to feel safe enough to keep the back door unlocked etc, etc. Sure enough tonight on the bbc news it mentioned a serial killer from vancouver.

In general how do all you brits lucky enough to live in Canada consider crime rates as a whole compared to UK. Do you consider your children to be safer there?

Not naive enough to think it crimeless but what are your personal observations?

I trust your wife is not planning to get into prostitution when she reaches Canada. That will go a long way towards prolonging her life.

Remember that my comparison is based on my values, where I came from, what I saw and where I'm at right now.

Much safer on a day to day basis, less aggressive beahviour, less hassle, less confrontational road rage, macho posturing, threats etc. Sure there's crims and scallawags and scumbags and all sorts but by and large they tend to be outta my hair. No heaving masses of vile knuckle-dragging meaningless skinheaded empty bags of humanity that UK council estate wallahs seem to pop out year after year to claim benefits, smoke, gamble, drink and get a skinhead at 3, a tattoo at 5, and an ASBO by the good old age of 12.

Plenty boozed/stoned truck driving rednecks but despite their racism and ignorance and lack of reedin riytin rithmutick ability and their prevalance for domestic aggravation, by and large they're harmless.

Most folks who get chopped/popped/gutted here tend to be associates of the naughty boy brigade.

Rich.

This block in Toronto is markedly more dangerous than North London was while I was growing up in the seventies. I don't go to Kilburn that much anymore, it's much rougher here than the places I do visit in the UK such as Hastings, Brighton and central London but they're all pretty nice places by any standard. What's different here is the number of shootings, about one death a week in the city and the widespread use of crack and meth resulting in desperate beggars on the street. Homelessness is a more visible problem here, Torontonians visiting the UK generally express surprise at the relative lack of street people there.

It all depends on location, of course, I expect rural Ontario is as safe as Surrey.

So that would be why I keep meeting people from Crawley round here.

It's true.
In fact it's safer.

The local "scrotes" nod their head and mumble "Hey" in a "Hello" kind of way around here when you pass them on the street.
Not "What the fck are you looking at nobhead?!" like they used to say where I lived in Stockport.

As for crime...never really hear of any.

Serial killers though? I hardly hear of any murders or crime in general either on the news or in the local rag.
Even in Toronto most of the murders are gang-related.

So basically unless you plan on selling drugs on a monumental scale, joining the bloods , crips or Hells Angels or going on the game, you'll be pretty safe.

Considering this trial is supposed to take more than a year, dont the media have anything better to do than provide saturation coverage of it at this stage? I really dont give a shit until its likely that a verdict is going to be returned. I dont want my 4 year old changing channel from "Dora" to hear at 3pm about some guy chopping the head and feet of these unfortunate women.

Anyway, rant over, for the OP, as Judy says, unless your wife is practicing a secret double life, she has nothing to fear. Most of the serious violence here is isolated among specific sections of society.

And is it really valid for Dbb to compare north london in the seventies with Toronto on the noughties...things have no doubt changed in the intervening 30+ years on both sides of the pond.

I dont know Toronto, nor do I like what i hear of it. Surrey has rich folk, so it has property crime. Now Kilburn, I lived there in the late 1980s, and never walked home alone at night, never opened a window in a room i wasnt in. In the late 1990s i considered moving back - it was one of the few places I could afford- Anyway I asked the local police where the safest/best areas were. Their reply? no safe areas, dont move here if you can help it. It was one of the few areas where you see homeless people, whereas even in small town Ontario there are beggars and homeless people and junkies who will grab your bag and run. The bag snatching is rare and will make the front page of the local paper, as opposed to in Kilburn where you would only bother reporting it so you could claim the insurance.

I feel safer here, much safer. Am happy to walk at night, open windows, talk to strangers. Much more relaxed.

What Rich_007 said - ditto in bucket loads.
Been here a little over two years - I can now sleep through the night because there are no drunken brawls outside my window; I don't have to tiptoe through dog poo, broken glass and loudmouth yobs sprawling on the pavements. I feel safe going into town (albet a very small town), at any time of the day or night, and although I don't have children at home any more, I know that I would have no reason to worry about their safety.

I dunno, generally when people praise Canada they do so because it reminds them of the UK in the fifties; pace of life, attitude to women, urchins playing in the street, the attitude to religion and so on. The comparison is valid, one just has to be careful that the view of the distant era is unduly tainted by nostalgia. I'm not nostalgic for north London, as a kid I was terrified by the fights outside the Galty. I think this part of Toronto now is comparable to Kilburn in the seventies, not necessarily Kilburn now, though it's certainly more like London than it is like Alliston or Peterborough.


Still, if we wanted safe, we'd all live in New Hampshire.

Thankyou all very much for the individual views and opinions. Weighing up what youve all said i would consider Canada a much safer place for children than the UK. Government in uk have recently announced prisons are too full.Many serious offenders can now re offend with the knowledge that theyre not likely to be locked up. Probably one of those high security open - feel free to walk out prisons.

Thanks

Aroncai

I think it depends what you meaning when you say 'safe'... safe from what?

Every year a few kids get killed by animals; cougars, bears, dogs etc. There's a lot of water in Canada (lakes, rivers, swimming pools) and many children drown every year. I'd say housefires are more of a threat in Canada than the UK given most are timber framed. I'd guess there are more traffic accidents in Canada (but I might be wrong).

I suspect there are fewer "knuckle-dragging meaningless skinheaded empty bags of humanity" in Canada but there are probably a few Clifford Olson's wandering around on either side of the pond.

What I find scary is that if your compare the stats on missing children in Canada and Britain the number of missing children per year is similar, yet the population of Canada in much, much smaller.

http://www.ourmissingchildren.gc.ca/...ut/stats_e.htm
http://uk.missingkids.com/missingkid...GB&PageId=1987

I'm not trying to freak you out. I grew up in Canada and survived and most kids do but there are dangers in Canada and some of those dangers are different than those in the UK so it is difficult to measure and compare the 'safety' of each country. Anyway, it's not like either place is like Sierra Leone or something.

Never really thought of it in terms of natural dangers as they don't exist in uk. Its the the 2 legged human type one has to worry about over here. I would have thought wild animals would avoid populated areas, but in uk foxes for instance have moved into populated areas and adapted quite well. Thanks for opening my eyes to that scenario. Whilst on the subject whats the snake problem like. I would have thought rattlers exist in Canada and various other snakes due to the good summer weather - or does the cold winter wipe them out?

There's three species of rattlers in Canada, the massasauga rattler and the timber in central and the western rattler in Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan, but they're all pretty rare(the timber hasn't been seen since god knows when, the 40s or something). Canada has loooads of snakes, you should look up about the snake dens in Manitoba.

Even the non-venemous ones can be touchy though, large garters and the sort can give you a hell of a thump, like being attacked by a pissy stapler.

Well in The NW (of Calgary) we have Coyotes and Deer in the back yard.

Don't forget raccoons. Oh the joys of raccoons. :curse: