Canadian ballot suggests social media ‘normalizing prejudice’

A brand new ballot has discovered younger Canadians are the most certainly to have heard antisemitic and Islamophobic feedback, and one researcher suggests social media might threat “normalizing prejudice.”

The Leger survey, which was carried out for the Affiliation for Canadian Research, discovered that over a 3rd (39 per cent) of Canadians between 18 and 24 heard an antisemitic comment and practically half (46 per cent) reported listening to an Islamophobic remark since Hamas’s invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Jack Jedwab, the affiliation’s chief govt, instructed Nationwide Publish in an e mail that the excessive publicity of younger Canadians to antisemitism and Islamophobia “was the most important shock” for him when reviewing the info. He stated the info suggests social media performed a job in exposing younger Canadians to such rhetoric.

The ballot discovered a “large spike” in antisemitism, with a marked convergence of publicity charges to antisemitism and Islamophobia for all Canadians, Jedwab stated.

“In the event you look again at surveys previous to October 2023, Canadians had been much more prone to say they had been much more uncovered to prejudice directed in direction of Muslims than they had been to different teams, together with Jews,” he wrote. “The truth that publicity is now comparatively related testifies to a giant spike in publicity to antisemitism.” (Solely about one per cent of Canada’s inhabitants is Jewish, whereas 4.9 per cent recognized as Muslim, as of 2021.)

Elevated publicity to illiberal views, “dangers normalizing prejudice,” Jedwab stated. It’s “one thing that badly must be addressed.” He pointed to a

latest report

exhibiting alarming ranges of Jew hatred in Ontario public colleges as an pressing name to motion.

“It must be said very clearly by individuals in positions of authority that it isn’t acceptable to stigmatize people sporting a Star of David or a hijab. Regrettably, there may be an excessive amount of equivocation on this and different manifestations of prejudice.”

The ballot discovered {that a} respondent’s notion of listening to a discriminatory remark closely formed how they seen media protection of the Hamas-Israel struggle.

Amongst those that heard antisemitic feedback solely, over a 3rd (35.5 per cent) thought mainstream media was extra beneficial to the Palestinians, whereas roughly 1 / 4 (25.1 per cent) believed Israel was portrayed higher. Conversely, respondents who stated they heard solely Islamophobic feedback thought Israel acquired higher media protection (35.8 per cent), whereas over 1 / 4 (27 per cent) noticed the Palestinians getting extra sympathetic protection.

Charges of publicity to antisemitic and Islamophobic feedback decreased considerably with older respondents. Lower than 1 / 4 (23 per cent) of Canadians aged 35 to 44 reported listening to an antisemitic comment, and simply 14 per cent of these 65 and over stated they heard such feedback publicly.

Encountering Islamophobic feedback was increased throughout most age teams, however adopted the same sample. Over a 3rd (34 per cent) of these between 25 and 34 years outdated reported listening to such statements, whereas barely over 1 / 4 (26 per cent) of individuals aged 35 to 44 stated they heard an Islamophobic remark.

Canadians residing within the prairie provinces reported encountering the very best ranges of antisemitic (23.5 per cent) and Islamophobic (24.5 per cent) feedback.

The ballot was carried out between June 6 and eight, 2025. A margin of error can’t be related to a non-probability pattern in a panel survey for comparability functions. A likelihood pattern of the 1,537 Canadian respondents would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, or 19 occasions out of 20.

Nationwide Publish

Antisemitism envoy says anti-hate messages are ‘not connecting’
Ontario college students focused by a whole lot of antisemitic incidents, federal report finds

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