One-quarter of Canadians believe that anti-Indigenous racism and antisemitism are very serious problems in Canada, according to a new national poll.
The poll, which was conducted by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies, was released just weeks after Statistics Canada hate-crime data revealed that antisemitism accounted for about 70 per cent of religiously motivated hate crimes in 2023, despite Jewish people accounting for only about two per cent of the nation’s population.
(Anti-Muslim sentiment is present in about 16 per cent of the religiously motivated hate crimes reported to police in 2023)
Anti-Indigenous sentiment was present in about three per cent of race-based hate crimes, while Indigenous people account for about five per cent of Canada’s population.
“Our perception of prejudice is very much affected by the domestic fallout of global conflicts,” said Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies, in an email. “But the effect varies according to where you live as we can see in some parts of the country and there is a gap between the perceptions about which groups are the object of prejudice.”
There are significant regional variations regarding what Canadians perceive as real problems in Canada. For example, 57 per cent of Quebecers said anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a problem in Canada, while just 46 per cent of Albertans agreed.
On antisemitism, specifically, 65 per cent of British Columbians said it’s a problem, followed by 63 per cent of Ontarians and 61 per cent of Atlantic Canadians. Fifty-nine per cent of Quebecers said antisemitism is a problem and 60 per cent of those in Manitoba and Saskatchewan agreed. Albertans, at 50 per cent, are least likely to believe antisemitism is a problem in Canada.
I wonder what Amira Elghawaby would have to say about this?
The poll finds Canadians perceive antisemitism and anti-Indigenous racism as very serious problems in Canada
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