Very familiar with both the Institute and the study.
We do have a property crime issue in Canada atm, but that is not violent crime.
They have also updated their data recently and here, specifically, is what the author of that study says:
"First, while violent crime rates were higher in the U.S. than in Canada, property crime rates were more similar. Second, while the highest violent crime rates were in U.S. urban areas, some of the highest property crime rates were in Canadian areas. Many U.S. urban areas are as safe—if not safer—than Canadian areas when it comes to both violent and property crime rates. And urban areas in Quebec often ranked at the bottom of crime rankings, demonstrating once again Quebec’s distinctiveness within the Canadian federation"
And the types of violent crime between the two countries is very different. The author had to play significant games with the numbers on violent crime to get them even close. For instance he left out rape entirely because the definition of sexual assault in Canada is different than the U.S definition(s) of rape. He also left out simple assault, because what we charge as assault in Canada, he claims is not a crime in the United States. Many studies show that the rape rate in the United States is 16X higher than that in Canada. Pretty convenient not to call that violent crime.
You are still significantly more likely to get shot, murdered or raped in the United States than Canada.
It's not narrative, it's fact.
