English Speaking Canadians React to Frosh Week Chants:
No Mere "Harmless Fun": Chants Are Outrageous, Should Not Be Tolerated by the Universities and Students Involved Should be Punished and Made to Take Sensitivity Training
In the alternate, after reading the chant scripts, three in ten (29%) of English speaking Canadians more closely believe that `this is harmless frosh week fun' and that `while the universities should discourage the chants, students shouldn't be punished or made to take sensitivity training'.
The chant scripts, originally composed and voiced in English were actually shown, on-line, to English speaking respondents and not to Francophone respondents because the vernacular and nuance is almost impossible to translate into French language text. However, the chants were described to Francophone respondents which generated the opposite response where 76% thought it was harmless fun, while 24% thought the chants are outrageous and should not be tolerated. What this may very well suggest is not that those in Quebec are distinctly different from their English speaking counterparts but that simply hearing about the chant actually seeing the exact text can create two diametrically opposed responses.
In terms of those English speaking Canadians who believe, after reading the texts that "the chants are outrageous, should not be tolerated by the universities, students involved should be punished and made to take sensitivity training', they are most likely to be found in Alberta (82%) followed by Atlantic Canada (73%), British Columbia (72%), Ontario (69%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (63%) and Quйbec (63%). In terms of demographics, men (77%) are more likely than women (74%) to find the chants outrageous along with those younger (18 - 34 at 82%) more so than those who are middle-aged (35 - 54 at 73%) and those who are older (55+ at 75%). Those are most outraged and calling for action are actually those with university education: 80%.
This compares to just 29% of English-speaking Canadians who read the chant scripts and felt that they were `harmless frosh week fun' and that `while the universities should discourage the chants, students shouldn't be punished or made to take sensitivity training'. Those feeling this way are most likely to reside in Quйbec/Saskatchewan/Manitoba (37%), followed by Ontario (31%), British Columbia (28%), Atlantic Canada (27%) and Alberta (18%). In terms of demographics, women (26%) were slightly more than men (23%) to see the chants as harmless fun along with 18% of those who are aged 18 - 34, 27% of those aged 35 - 54 and 25% of those aged 55+. Only 20% of those with university education agreed with this assessment.
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted between September 18 to 20, 2013, on behalf of CTV News. For this survey, a sample of 1,035 Canadians from Ipsos' Canadian online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/-3.5 percentage points had all Canadians adults been polled. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.
For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid
Public Affairs
416.324.2002
[email protected]
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