Dr. Gabor Maté on statistics: what the evidence says · JRE #1869
SUBJECT: STATISTICS
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
30% of my clients were indigenous people. They make up 5% of the population. 30% of the people, of the men in jail in Canada, 50% of the women in jail in Canada are indigenous people.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Maté's figures track closely with Canadian government data on Indigenous incarceration, though exact percentages vary by year and by whether provincial or federal custody, and admissions versus population snapshots, are being measured. Indigenous people made up roughly 5% of Canada's population as of the 2021 census. Indigenous men have represented around 30 to 33% of male admissions to federal custody in recent years, matching Maté's figure closely. For women, the disparity is at least as large as Maté described: Canada's correctional investigator reported that by April 2022, Indigenous women reached parity with non-Indigenous women in federal penitentiaries, making up about half of the female federal inmate population, up from roughly 40% just a year or two earlier. Overall, the claim's population percentage and the general order of magnitude for both male and female incarceration rates are well-supported by official Canadian statistics, even though Maté did not cite a specific year or source and the precise women's figure has fluctuated around, rather than sat fixed at, 50%.