Youngest Canadians more accepting of collective blame against religious, ethnic groups: poll - National Post

A large Toronto Police Services presence kept the small group of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish protesters away from Sunday's Walk with Israel Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National PostArticle contentWhile most Canadians reject collective blame and sweeping claims about religious and ethnic groups, younger Canadians are substantially more likely to accept them, according to a new poll.

Data collected by the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) found that more 57 per cent of Canadians find it unacceptable — not very or not at all — to suggest that a particular religion has harmful beliefs. The only outlier among the age groups was 18-24-year-olds, 56 per cent of whom felt it was somewhat or very acceptable to say that.

Nearly seven in ten respondents (69 per cent) think it’s either degree of unacceptable to say that members of a specific ethnic or religious group cannot be trusted. The youngest cohort was the only one with observable conflict, with 42 per cent of on the accepting side.

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When it comes to holding members of a religious group collectively responsible for the actions of a foreign government, three quarters (75 per cent) deemed it unacceptable, but, again, nearly a third (32 per cent) under 25 were more accepting.

People in the 25-34 age group (30 per cent) and the 45-55 demographic (31 per cent) also registered above the overall net acceptable number (25 per cent).

“There needs to be some increasing thought and sensitivity about the extent to which people make those connections,” ACS president Jack Jedwab told National Post in an interview, noting that none of that should ever be acceptable “in democracies like ours.”

Without ascribing any symmetry to the subjects, the poll sought to understand which religious or ethnic groups Canadians feel should be apologizing for the one they are perceived to be affiliated with outside of Canada.

It found that 43 per cent of respondents are most likely to think that Muslims should be expected to publicly condemn terrorist acts carried out in the name of Islam. Meanwhile, 36 per cent suggested Russian Canadians should be expected to publicly condemn actions of the Russian government with which they disagree, and 32 per cent felt the same about Jewish Canadians and the Israeli government.