235 sexual assaults reported in Yellowknife since 2010

RCMP in Yellowknife have released the numbers on how many sexual assaults have been reported in the city over the last four years.

Since 2010, 235 sexual assaults have been reported to RCMP. About 60 reports were made each year.

This year, 40 sexual assaults have been reported, including two that happened in the early morning on Tuesday.

Workers at the YWCA in Yellowknife are shocked by the numbers.

"Those kinds of numbers, that's more than one a week," said Lyda Fuller, who works at the YWCA.

According to Statistics Canada, out of nearly 300 communities, Yellowknife is the fourth worst when it comes to the severity of the crimes in the city.

But Cpl. Barry Ledoux disagrees.

"We live in a fairly safe environment in comparison to other cities. You know, our violent crimes aren't as off the charts as like other communities.

"You have to take into consideration that ... mischief complaints are a big number of our investigations and that's something as minor as spray painting or it could be damage to a vehicle," said Ledoux.

"So when you factor in all the numbers I provided, our statistics aren't that bad."

But Fuller says statistics don't tell the whole story. A number of sexual assaults don't get reported.

"I talked to women this week and every woman I spoke with had had some unwarranted sexual intrusion [by] a stranger. Every woman."

Fuller says stiffer sentencing could help reduce these kinds of crimes.

Meanwhile, RCMP are still searching for the two suspects in the sexual assaults that happened on earlier this week.

They're patrolling the Frame Lake trail more frequently, where one of the incidents happened.