Canadians' Views on including Sexual Orientation in Human Rights Legislation

In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision that sexual orientation must be included as a prohibited ground for discrimination in Alberta's human rights legislation, the Canadian public -- by more than a three-to-one margin -- agrees that human rights legislation in this country should protect gays and lesbians from discrimination based on their sexual orientation. This is the majority opinion in all provinces even in Alberta where it is supported by two thirds (64%) of the population. These findings emerged from a National Angus Reid Poll conducted among a representative cross-section of 1,500 Canadians between April 15th and 23rd, 1998.

Three-quarters (75%) of polled Canadians agreed that "human rights legislation in Canada should protect gays and lesbians from discrimination based on their sexual orientation", versus 21 percent who disagreed.

Regionally, the level of agreement ranges from 84 percent among Quйbecers to 64 percent in both Alberta and Manitoba/Saskatchewan. Agreement is also expressed by at least two-thirds of Canadians from other major population sub-groupings, surpassing the eight in ten mark among younger people (83%) and the university educated (82%). Across political stripes, agreement was highest among current BQ supporters (93%) and lowest among Reform supporters (57%).

Support for the inclusion of sexual orientation as a banned ground for discrimination was also stronger among respondents who said they have a homosexual family member, friend or co-worker (84%) than among those who said that, as far as they are aware, they do not personally know someone who is gay or lesbian (69%).

With a national sample of 1,500, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results are within ±2.5 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Angus Reid Group
(416) 324-2900