Three Quarters (75%) Believe U.S. Unjustified In Deporting Maher Arar
Further, half (52%) agree that our security forces are unnecessarily targeting Arab Canadians because of their race, while four in ten (43%) do not agree that Canadian forces are practicing this racial profiling.
A majority of two thirds (62%) agree that there are international terrorists within Canada who are either just waiting to attack Canadian civilians or are using Canada as a launching pad for attacks on other countries. In comparison, one third (34%) do not believe that terrorist such as these are operating in our country.
But most Canadians are confident that a terrorist attack in Canada in the next two years is not imminent. Seven in ten (72%) state that they disagree with the statement that there will be a terrorism attack in Canada in the next two years. On the other hand, one quarter (25%) agree that within the next two years there will be a terrorist attack in Canada.
These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/Globe and Mail/CTV poll conducted between February 3 and February 5 2004. The telephone survey is based on a randomly selected sample of 1055 adult Canadians during each time frame. With a sample of this size, the results for each question are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, 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. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.
Three Quarters(75%) Believe The U.S. Unjustified In Deporting Maher Arar...
Three quarters of Canadians (75%) believe that the United States was unjustified in deporting Maher Arar to the country where he was born as opposed to Canada where he lives as a Canadian citizen. One fifth (19%) are of the opposite opinion, believing the United States had justification for expelling him to his birth country. While one in twenty (6%) say they `don't know.'
- Ontarians (77%) are the most likely to believe that the United States was unjustified in deporting Maher Arar, followed by British Columbians (75%), residents of Saskatchewan/Manitoba (74%) and Quebec (74%), Atlantic Canadians (72%). and Albertans (71%).
- Atlantic Canadians (23%) and Albertans (23%) are most likely to believe that the U.S. was justified in deporting Maher Arar
- Men are significantly more likely than women to feel the U.S. was justified in deporting Maher Arar (22% vs. 16%).
- Residents of Urban areas are significantly more inclined to believe that the U.S. was unjustified than are residents of rural areas (76% vs. 69%).
- Ontarians (55%) are the most inclined to believe that Arab Canadians are being unnecessarily targeted by our security forces because of their race, followed by residents of Quebec (53%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (51%), Atlantic Canadians (48%), British Columbians (46%), and Albertans (44%).
- Women are significantly more apt than men to believe that Arabs are being unnecessarily targeted by our security forces (56% vs. 47%).
- Those with higher levels of income are less inclined to agree that Arab Canadians are being unnecessarily target by our security forces (56%
- Seven in ten in Saskatchewan/Manitoba (72%) and Alberta (67%) feel that there are terrorists such as these within Canada, followed by two thirds of Atlantic Canadian (65%), and six in ten in Ontario (62%), British Columbia (60%) and Quebec (57%).
- Older respondents are the most likely to believe there are terrorists in Canada (65% of those aged 55+ and those aged 35-54, and 55% of those aged 18-34).
- Men are significantly more apt than women to agree that there are international terrorist are in Canada (66% vs. 59%).
- The propensity to believe such terrorists are operating in Canada rises nominally with income level (57%
- Residents of Saskatchewan/Manitoba (35%), Atlantic Canada (31%) and Alberta (31%) are the most likely to believe there will be a terrorist attack within the next two years, followed by Ontarians (24%), British Columbians (21%) and Quebecers (21%).
- The older the respondents are, the more likely they are to agree that there will be a terrorism attack in the next two years (31% of those aged 55+, 27% of those aged 35-54, and 17% of those aged 18-34).
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For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900
