NATIONAL PULSE – ‘Police are easier on some protesters than others’

Two-in-five urban Canadians say they’ve encountered, been disrupted by protests in past six months

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By ANGUS REID INSTITUTE

May 2, 2024 – New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute, the second part in a series examining Canadians’ views of and experiences with protests, finds Canadians are near-unanimous (86%) in their belief that the right to protest is fundamentally important to Canadian democracy.

But there is a concurrent sense among many that not all groups who set out to demonstrate receive the same treatment from authorities.

Overall, two-thirds of Canadians (64%) say the police give preferential treatment to certain groups when dealing with protests. One-in-five (21%) disagree, led by those over the age of 54 (26%).

Canadians of all political stripes largely feel that police response and engagement at various protests is not applied consistently, with at least three-in-five past Liberal (60%), Conservative (68%), and NDP (73%) voters saying so. Where they diverge, however, is on the question of who receives preference.

Past Conservative voters feel that left-leaning causes in general, and specifically pro-Palestinian protests, are given unfair leeway, while past Liberal and NDP voters are more likely to say the opposite, that right-leaning protest groups and to a lesser extent pro-Israeli demonstrators, are given preferential treatment by police.

That is not to say that Canadians don’t see an important role for police in monitoring protests. Indeed, three-quarters of Canadians say that the right to protest should end when laws are broken, suggesting an important responsibility for authorities.

Further, half (52%) say that organizers of demonstrations should be liable if laws are indeed broken by those supporting their cause. This concept generates pushback from two-in-five (37%) including a plurality of past NDP voters, who feel that holding organizers responsible goes too far.

More Key Findings:

• To better understand experiences over the past six months, ARI asked Canadians about their own experiences with encountering protests during this period. More than one-in-three Canadians say they haven’t encountered any protests (36%), rising to more than half (54%) in rural areas.

• 17 per cent of Canadians say they’ve encountered and been upset by multiple protests during this six-month period, rising to 21 per cent for those living in urban spaces.

• The proportion of this group – the “Encountered and Agitated” on ARI’s Protest Encounter Index – rises to 24 per cent in Vancouver and 32 per cent in Ottawa.

• What makes them Encountered and Agitated? Among this group, all have run into at least three protests in the past six months, and half say they’ve encountered five or more. Seven-in-10 say they have experienced a disruption to their day at least twice and four-in-five have been upset about this multiple times.

Link to the poll here: www.angusreid.org/