"You've got one end of the spectrum that's at zero and you've got that other group that's disproportionately probably more and more susceptible to following direction from influencers on selected social media, which is probably what this is attributable to."

"Medium to long term, there may be some unlearning that needs to be done amongst persons that are adopting such positions that clearly are not well informed if they think the majority of Iranians are  supporting the Iranian regime. That's incorrect." 

Jack Jedwab, President and CEO, Association for Canadian Studies

 

"[Scores of fake online accounts that were] coming from Iranians inside Iran linked to the regime and fuelling the campus protests at McGill [University, Montreal]."

"A massive, funded, co-ordinated and organized [effort by Iran designed to influence public opinion and government policy]."

Canadian investigative journalist Nagar Mojahedi

 

"As the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, 2023, Iran immediately surged support to Hamas with its now well-honed technique of combining targeted hacks with influence operations amplified on social media, what we refer to as cyber-enabled influence operations."

"By late October, nearly all of Iran's influence and major cyber actors focused on Israel in an increasingly targeted, coordinated, and destructive manner, making for a seemingly boundless 'all-hands-on-deck' campaign against Israel."

Microsoft Threat Analysis team

While most prefer neutrality in the Iran war, many in the Gen Z cohort think Canada should support the Iranian regime, according a new poll. Photo by Peter J Thompson/National Post

 

A  new Leger poll highlights that a significant portion of Canada's youngest adults subscribe to the belief that Canada should be supporting the Iranian regime in defence against the U.S. and Israel's aerial onslaught against the Islamic Republic. One-fifth (20 percent) of respondents between the ages of 18 to 24 felt that Ottawa should 'politically support' the Iranian regime's leadership. Among that age cohort only eight percent think the United States, Israel and other allied nations in the three-week-old war should receive Canada's backing. 

 

In contrast, results for older Canadians are the reverse to the youth contingent. Among Canadians aged 45 to 54, three percent support the Iranian regime; among the age group 55 to 64, one percent, and zero percent among Canadians aged 65 and older. A quarter of these older Canadian groups feel that Canada should be in support of its historic allies; at the rate of 23, 25 and 26 percent respectively.

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has been listed on the Canadian government terrorist list for the past two years. Jack Jedwab, whose group commissioned the poll, felt that the response by young Canadians reflected the fact of misinformation that has been disseminated by malign foreign interests among the gen Z cohort -- among whom 32 percent believe that Iranian-Canadians do not support the U.S.-Israel military actions against Islamic Republic of Iran. 

 

Despite the demonstrations by Iranian-Canadians celebrating in support of the U.S.-Israeli actions in Iran on the streets of Canada in jubilation that this may see the end of that violently repressive regime, over half of all respondents said they don't know.

 

Across all age groups, half of the poll's respondents felt that Canada should remain neutral in the escalating conflict, while one-fifth said they don't know are aren't certain. "It's a combination also of our own sort of self-evaluation or assessment of ourselves as the nation that is seeking or desires peaceful solutions and outcomes", was Mr. Jedwab's interpretation of the poll results, highlighting a November 2024 ASC poll finding that Canadians are 92 percent for peace with all nations, yet still felt that war could not be avoided even if one side stood down.

 

"Things are going to be more complex than that. I think some of that thinking underlies part of the neutrality view." In his view, Mr. Jedwab stated it appears that the Liberal government is attempting to balance neutrality with some Canadians' expectation that Canada should aid its allies. "That's a challenging position to take and we'll see what types of pressure are exerted in the coming days and weeks on the part of the U.S. and its allies for middle powers like Canada to become engaged, and assist those who prefer greater disengagement to better understand what the stakes are." 

 

The youth cohort, Mr. Jedwab observed, is especially drawn by anti-Trump sentiment, despite the fact that the IRGC is a terrorist entity, and the Islamic Republic itself is universally acknowledged to be a regime that encourages and supports and funds terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Yemeni Houthis, as well as Iraqi Shiite terror groups. 

 

"That is not something that can be taken lightly at all in trying to see one's way clearer in this war."

"It's something one needs to consider carefully in terms of drawing conclusions about where Canada should stand on this." 

 

Al-Quds Day protesters, right, were met with a sizeable counter protest near the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, Ontario, on March 14, 2026. Photo by GEOFF ROBINS /AFP via Getty Images

 

"In late 2024, Meta -- the company that owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- shut down a sophisticated Iranian influence operation run by the dictatorship's Islamic Revolutionary Guard."

"Meta's Threat Disruption Center revealed that Iran, aided and abetted by Hezbollah, was running multiple fake accounts across Meta's platforms as well as on TikTok, X, and others."

"Iran-supported Hezbollah created fake sites and purchased thousands of dollars of advertising on Facebook and Instagram."

Warren Kinsella, The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda 

 

Canadian Immigration, Refugee and Migrant Intake

"While most observers attribute the persistent concern with the numbers of refugees to economic concerns and housing challenges, the survey looks at the extent to which Canadians trust immigrants and refugees and finds that amongst those Canadians who feel that there are too many immigrants, the level of trust in refugees is especially low."

"This may imply that concerns over domestic intergroup tensions may be a more important factor in concern with levels than has been previously acknowledged." 

Analysis of national Leger poll

Protesters at the Hindu Sabha Mandir temple in Brampton, Ontario.  Photograph: Nick Lachance/Toronto Star/Getty Images

 

"Intergroup tensions", as for example Canadian Hindus versus Canadian Sikhs with their traditions of suspicion and distrust, acting out within Canada in viral events of dangerous dimensions, the two solitudes coming to blows, endangering the communities and bringing international attention to their divisions. It is, in fact, the communities' propensities to have among them cliques that also engage in illegal, criminal activities domestically in Canada. But above all, the ongoing agenda of the Khalistani Sikhs who agitate for a separate Sikh state to be divided from India's interior. Canada's worst terrorist assault was one committed by British Columbia Khalistanis who placed a bomb aboard Air India Flight 182 that killed all 329 people aboard, in 1982.

 

Canada has a population of Sri Lankans, among them members of the Tamil Tigers who in the past agitated for their own separatist state, committing violent crimes in Sri Lanka in support of their sovereign aspirations against the country's military and members of government. Canadian Sri Lankans belonging to the Tamil Tigers promulgated their violent terrorist propaganda, drawing Canada involuntarily into a debate roiling another country entirely, until the Tigers were delivered a crushing blow that devastated their numbers in Sri Lanka and put their designs to rest.

 

Propaganda billboards in the region of Sri Lanka controlled by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, April 22, 2007. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

 

But wait: the current Liberal government of prime minister Mark Carney elevated a former sympathizer of the Tigers, MP Gary Anandasangaree, to the important Cabinet post of Public Safety Minister. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, along with the Tamil Tigers and World Tamil Movement, are listed terrorist groups in Canada. Minister Anandasangaree took the step of recusing  himself from anything to do with these two groups, as Public Safety Minister. But it was discovered, that as a Member of Parliament years previous, he had written a letter in support of a former Tamil Tiger facing deportation from Canada.

 

And nor to overlook the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees brought to Canada during Syria's 14-year sectarian civil war when former regime Shia-Alawite President Bashar al-Assad barrel- and chemical-bombed Syria's Sunni population killing an estimated third of a million Syrians; years that saw half the population of the country internally displaced, and millions more seeking haven abroad. These intake refugees along with a sizeable Palestinian-Canadian population and other Muslim groups in Canada totalling almost two million have made their presence known in ongoing street protests against Israel.

 

Pro-Palestinian protesters chant during a demonstration protesters are calling a "National March for Palestine" near Parliament Hill (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

 

Since the 2023 October 7 incursion of thousands of Palestinian terrorists from Gaza into southern Israel who embarked on a sadistically savage rampage of rape, mutilation and mass murder, killing 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping another 250 children, women, elderly, foreign farm workers and a number of Israeli IDF members, leading to a military response by the IDF into Gaza to route out Hamas leaders and operatives, Muslim groups in Canada, led primarily by Palestinians living in Canada have harassed Canadian Jews, threatened their security, committed violent criminal acts and behaved in a manner inconsistent with Canadian values and justice. 

"We're trying o probe here whether Canadians do have security concerns that are also driving some of the reticence or hesitation about immigration right now. My conclusion is that that is the case."

"The point of the survey is, there is an issue that we need to pay attention to. If there is a security concern associated with migration right now, it requires some attention and a need to reassure Canadians that our government and the responsible departments are taking care of those issues, are paying attention to those issues if and when they arrive, or where and when they may arise."

"We're seeing the degree of trust expressed in refugees as especially low. And particularly amongst those people who think there are too may immigrants, the trust of refugees is low, lower than it is normally."

"Whether you're born in Canada or not born in Canada, or whether you're a minority or not, this issue around trust, and the perceptions around the global instability, is affecting our perspectives around migration." 

Jack Jedwab, president, chief executive, Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute  

The new poll in question conducted nationally for the Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute, found 62 percent of people polled feel Canada is accepting too many people, over double the number that expressed those sentiments  six year earlier. Only 20 percent disagreed, while 19 percent responded they  don't know. Canadians were asked if they think immigrants can be trusted, and the 52 percent of Canadians who said they can, saw 36 percent responding in the negative when the issue is that of refugees being trusted -- 20 percent adamant that immigrants cannot be trusted; 23 percent felt the same about refugees.

 

For the question whether there are too many people coming to Canada, among those who declare there are, 32 percent only, trust immigrants; 28 percent felt they cannot be trusted, and for refugees those numbers were 24 percent trusting; another 32 percent felt they cannot be trusted. And it is immigrants themselves that agree, by 57 percent, that too many immigrants are arriving to Canada, near matching the numbers of non-immigrant responders. Non-white people surveyed saw 61 percent agreeing there are too many immigrants in comparison to 58 percent of white people. 

"That polarization is not based on whether you are yourself an immigrant or you are a minority, it's not. It's transcending that. So the trust issue is a critical factor. It's just not defined by, as I said, your status as an immigrant or non-immigrant or as a minority. Those groups of people are making observations to the same extent across those markers of identity."

"It is important that we properly understand what the factors are underlying the reticence about immigration. So that's where the importance ... is in trying to establish what the concerns are, how significant those concerns are, where those concerns are coming from."

"And then, on that basis, to determine how best to address them rather than dismissing them."

Jack Jedwab 

The Canadian Citizenship Ceremony  -- Still from video

 

Although Passive in Response, a Majority of Canadians Support Removal of Pro-Hamas Encampments at Canadian Universities

"For many, they had already made their point, and/or they were not going to achieve their objective, however it was understood -- which was also unclear to many Canadians."

"[The protesters' goals and objectives] are being seen as increasingly unclear."

"For many, the underlying issue was a matter of trust, and the 55-plus group trusts the university leaders to a much greater extent than they did the encampment organizers."

"[A] considerable [49 percent of students in the survey said they didn't know or preferred not to answer] potentially suggesting a high degree of stigma associated with taking a position on either side of this."

Jack Jedwab, president, Association for Canadian Studies

 

According to a new national poll conducted by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies, most Canadians support police having taken down illegal, disruptive pro-Palestinian encampments at Canadian universities. Some 70 percent of Canadians surveyed were in agreement that officials were correct in having police and private security dismantle an encampment at McGill University and at downtown Victoria Square in Montreal.

On the morning of July 5, police in riot gear began to dismantle the camp at Victoria Square, mere days following the province's public security minister accusing the city in public of being too passive with the presence of the protesters in the public arena. Once Victoria Square was cleared of the encampment, in another five days police and private security firm agents were at McGill using excavators and front-end loaders to disassemble about a hundred tents and tarps at the McGill encampment after over two months of legal battles, counter protests, accusations of antisemitism and concerns over security risks.

Twice, Quebec courts refused to issue an injunction against the encampments. Finally, flyers promoting a "revolutionary summer program", ostensibly to 'educate' those not sufficiently imbued with hatred for Jews and Israel, who needed an additional propaganda boost to venerate the terrorist group Hamas. The flyers featured photographs of keffiyeh-wrapped Palestinian fighters with raised rifles.

Members of the Divest for Palestine Collective had planned and organized the Victoria Square camp, in an effort to apply pressure on Quebec's pension fund manager to sever links with Israeli institutions that the group accused of being complicit in the conflict in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. Spurred by encampments set up at universities in the United States, the McGill University encampment was the first to appear in Canada. Quickly followed by over a dozen other Canadian universities, including University of British Columbia, University of Toronto and University of Alberta.

 

Workers dismantle the anti-Israel encampment at McGill University in Montreal on July 10. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

Demands were noisily issued that universities cut ties with Israel, end all collegial arrangements with Israeli universities and divest from any companies or corporate interests that supply arms to Israel, or which profit from the war with Hamas. Those protesters enjoyed the support of 19 percent of Canadians, according to earlier Leger polling. McGill and Victoria Place, according to Jack Jedwab of the Association for Canadian Studies were seen as valid proxies for public opinion on other encampments.

A majority of Canadians over -- 69 percent -- agreed with their removal. Twice as many students favoured removal of the encampment of those expressing an opinion, while 40 percent agreed that police were right to take down encampments, while 18 percent disagreed. 42 percent of students responded they preferred not to answer, or just did not know. The degree of opposition to the encampments with just 13 percent of Canadians of all ages polled disapproving of their removal suggested protesters increasingly perceived them as disruptive to student life and the broader community.

The encampment at McGill was described by its vice chancellor Deep Saini as a "heavily fortified focal point for intimidation and violence" organized largely by outsiders who used tactics designed to "threaten, coerce and scare people". Support for encampment removal was highest among Canadians aged 55 and older, with 62 percent reporting they "strongly agree" officials were correct for police and private security to take down the McGill tents.

Nearly half (48 percent) of 18- to 34-year-olds strongly or somewhat agreed with the removal of the McGill encampments, even as 24 percent  strongly disagreed. Of that age group, 27 percent said they did not know or preferred not to answer.

Aerial view of the pro-Palestinian camp on the McGill University campus in downtown Montreal on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Canada, Safe and Secure

"I think policy makers and decision-makers need to realize that there are some very strong sentiments being expressed on these issues [involuntary addiction treatment, criminal charge bail, decriminalization of drugs]."

"We're seeing large percentages of people saying things are getting worse."

"I think there was a perception, correct or not, that safe injection sites would lead to a solution, and those problems are instead amplified probably ten-fold from where they were. So there's this frustration of, 'What else can we do. This isn't working'."

Andrew Enns, executive vice-present, Leger Marketing

 

Little wonder Canadians are fed up. Inflation is raging, the cost of consumer goods sky-high, additional taxes on energy linked to the Trudeau government's environmentalist agenda has sent the price of gas at the fuel pumps soaring, homelessness is a growing concern, and more people than ever before are turning to food banks. Canada's once-proud universal health care system has been gutted; wait times for surgery, for access to medical specialists have become dangerously inadequate. The 911 emergency system is collapsing, ambulances are increasingly late responding to calls, and so are police.

But the latest poll by Leger Marketing looked at other acute concerns of Canadians; that of growing crime rates, of growing addiction rates and consequent deaths from overdosing. Fixes that governments have been relying on have proven to be failures. Leaving the public frustrated and angry. And those sentiments of failed government actions in addressing these societal problems were emphasized on the latest poll.

The status quo is unacceptable and the response of governments has been inadequate to say the least. Canadian public opinion was found through this latest poll to be completely opposite government priorities channelled through programs that have proven to be worthless. The issues of bail, involuntary addiction treatment, and the decriminalization of drugs in a desperate attempt to ease the growing problems in society are topmost in people's minds behind the cost of living.

A clear majority of poll respondents agree the Canadian justice system is mishandling bail, too lenient on violent criminals. Example: the statement "there are too many repeat violent offenders being offered bail" had the agreement of 79 percent of the surveyed. The statement "the justice system is too lenient on offenders who are found to be guilt of committing a violent crime" was endorsed by 79 percent. While less than 32 percent agreed that Canada had a "firm and fair" system of justice.

On the issue of strengthening bail, solid agreement was seen, with 82 percent of Western Canadians, 77 percent of Eastern Canadians, 80 percent of men, 78 percent of women, 81 percent of white Canadians and 71 percent of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) Canadians, reporting that too many violet offenders were given bail. General agreement was seen on the viewpoint that Canada's top priorities on criminal justice should be "violent crime", "illegal firearm possession" and "drug and substance abuse".

 

 

A course has been adopted in Canada of setting aside law enforcement from the equation of drug addiction, prioritizing harm reduction policies with the like of safe consumption sites. Included was British Columbia's experiment in decriminalizing personal use quantities of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. Canadians indicated a more nuanced view of how Canada's climbing rates of fatal overdose could be addressed.

Major support was expressed (58 percent) for "supervised safe consumption sites", yet almost all respondents wanted to have drug dealers prosecuted and chronic addicts to be mandated to the necessity of treatment. Over 7 in ten respondents opted for "more policing" on drugs, the highest being expressed (at 81 percent) in British Columbia, the recognized epicentre of the overdose crisis. Asked should Canada focus on "identifying and prosecuting those involved in bringing drugs into the community", 86 percent agreed.

"There was one [safe consumption site] when we came into office in 2015, now there are dozens and dozens and dozens across the country and they are saving lives significantly", boasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He slammed it as "unfortunate" and "anti-science" when Alberta began the pursuit of a treatment-centered approach to address its overdose crisis. His boast is  a hollow sham; lethal overdoses, in the face of 'dozens and dozens' of 'safe injection' sites, are on a pronounced upward curve. Moreover, the 'safe' opioids handed out at the sites are leaking onto the streets.

Although involuntary treatment for chronic addicts has been denounced as extreme by the Canadian political and public health establishment, it was endorsed by 71 percent of poll respondents who agreed "involuntary treatment programs where seriously addicted individuals are required to attend addiction counselling in addition to receiving safe supply", sounded like a solution. 

 

 

As for the criminal justice system reflected by government policy, opinion polls find majority support for capital punishment which since the 1970s was officially abolished in Canada. Incarceration and detention issues have hardened in the wake of recent murders and assaults committed by suspects either on bail or recent early releases from prison. Random fatal stabbings by people on parole for similar random attacks infuriate the public. 

The fatal shooting of an Ontario Provincial Police constable by a repeat violent offender on bail, prompted a letter co-signed by all 13 Canadian premiers urging the federal government to reform bail (the Trudeau government had loosened bail issues after the previous Conservative-led government had tightened them) and take steps to get violent criminals "off the streets". 

Canadian bail policies were described as a system of "catch and release" by over two-thirds of poll respondents, with white respondents at 69 percent and non-white respondents, 68 percent. If offenders keep committing crimes while on bail, in the opinion of the survey respondents, stop giving them bail. 92 percent of poll respondents endorsed the statement "repeat violent criminal offenders should have their access to bail severely restricted or revoked".

Canadians were generally in agreement that the country’s top priorities on criminal justice should be “violent crime,” “illegal firearm possession” and “drug and substance abuse.” Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia