New poll: record numbers of Canucks against more immigration

The official party line of Canada's Liberal government, dutifully parroted by the state-owned Canadian Broadcorping Castration, is that the majority of tolerant and progressive Canadians support immigration, and all the benefits that admitting hordes of Third-Worlders will bring to a grateful country. Just a few days ago, the Ministry of Immigration and Refugees [sic] released the results of a poll, taken in March, that said that although Canucks have some reservations about the asylum-seekers crossing the US-Canada border "irregularly", they still welcome the world's poor huddled masses.

Walt and others called BS on that one. The truth is that, outside of the chattering classes of downtown Toronto and Parliament Hill, most Canadians have been dubious for decades about the merits of higher levels of immigration, now closing on 300,000 per year not counting the illegals. Today's National Post reveals the truth about popular sentiment, according to a poll taken in late July by the respected Angus Reid organization. Walt trusts that Angus Reid and Postmedia won't mind our reposting part of the article by Brian Platt and the main graphic, which shows clearly the growth of opposition to immigration over the past few years. [Memo to Postmedia: Walt doesn't make any money from this blog! It's a public service. Thank you! Ed.]

The report from the Angus Reid Institute analyzes polling data going back to 1975. It shows that throughout that period a relatively constant number of Canadians — around one in four — have always said they think immigration levels should be decreased, while support for keeping levels the same has tended to be slightly higher. Only about 10% of Canadians have supported increasing the levels during that time. But the latest poll shows a spike in opposition to immigration, which the organization says coincides with "more frequent and increasingly fraught conversations about policy regarding immigration and migration to Canada."

This year's survey shows 49% of respondents think immigration levels should be decreased, compared to 36% in 2014. 31% think levels should stay the same, compared to 48% in 2014. Only 6% think levels should be increased, compared to 9% in 2014. This brilliant bit of satire, scraped from Blazing Cat Fur, explains why so many Canucks feel that way.

Walt wonders if King Trudeau II is pleased with his handiwork. Turns out his constant virtue-signalling and shaming Canadians who disagree with him (see "What happens when Canadians exercise their right to speak freely about illegal border jumpers and diversity", WWW 20/8/18) has had the effect of poking the bear. We'll see the results in 14 months... or sooner, if Mr Socks decides to call a snap election before things get worse.

But chances of a snap election are, IMHO, slim and none. (Lifetime pct .991.) Junior doesn't read the polls, or the comments section on those CBC articles where commenting is allowed (as long as M-103 is respected).

Just yesterday, Saddam Hussesn, the Somali-born Minister for Refugees &c, announced that the Gliberals are dropping the controversial lottery system for reuniting immigrant families and moving to a first-come, first-served online system. Under the family reunification programme, they will admit 20,500 parents and grandparents -- many of them illiterate and suffering from chronic illnesses -- in 2019, and 21,000 in 2020. Those numbers are more than double the figure for the first year of JT's government, 2016, in which 10,000 applications were approved. Talk about listening to public opinion! The Liberals are stone deaf... and in 14 months will be stone dead! (Lifetime pct still .991.)

Further reading: Never thought we'd see the day when Walt would recommend a piece by the CBC's resident anti-Trumper, Neil Macdonald, but "Maxime Bernier is challenging orthodoxy. He deserves a civil reply", dealing as it does with freedom of speech, is worth reading. The comments section is open too!

Poll: Most Canadians think Islam, Sikhism bad for their society

Just heard from Agent 3 for the second time this week. In the third week of October (he writes) he responded to a poll conducted by the respected (and politically neutral) Angus Reid organization. Since the subject was "social issues", Agent 3 responded with alacrity (and very quickly too), but, since he figured the poll was being taken on behalf of Canada's Liberal government, he didn't expect to see the results published.

Surprise! The poll of nearly 2000 Canucks was conducted in partnership with Faith in Canada 150, powered by Cardus, a think tank. It's a non-denominational initiative "designed to engage Canadians and their institutions in a rich and robust conversation on faith in our common life." They took the poll, it seems, to see what impact their efforts to Draw All Faiths Together (DAFT) have had, and released the results earlier this week... even though the results were disappointing to those who believe people of all "faith communities" should get in a big circle and sing "Kumbaya".

The survey found that Canadians are divided over whether religious diversity is healthy for the country, and consider Islam, in particular, to be a negative force. 26% of respondents said increasing religious diversity is a good thing, while 23% said it is bad. (Agent 3 didn't say which group he fell into, but we can guess, can't we.) 44% said diversity brings a mix of good and bad, and the remaining 7% were unsure or, being Canadian, too polite to say how they really feel.

Questions about respondents' views on particular religious groups revealed strong anti-Islam sentiment. 46% of those polled said Islam is damaging Canada, while only 13% per cent said it is beneficial. 20% either did not know or care to say (see above), while 21% said the "Religion of Peace" has no real impact. The pollsters said the results are in keeping with "a well-documented pattern. Namely, if Islam is involved, a significant segment of Canadians will react negatively."

Catholicism, Protestantism, evangelical Christianity and Judaism all had overall positive ratings. The only other religion with an overall negative score was Sikhism, with 22% calling it damaging and 13%. Bad news for Jagmeet Singh, the new leader of Canada's socialistic New Democrats, who makes a big point of being a practising Sikh, wearing his very tall orange turban as a kind of visual punctuation mark.

Angus Reid, the founder and president of the eponymous institute, said he found it "disheartening that Canadians are not more committed to the freedom of religion enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms." Only a slight majority — 55% — of respondents said freedom of religion makes Canada a better country, while 14% said the freedom makes Canada worse and 21% thought it has no impact. Mr Reid told an interviewer, "I think the low number of Canadians who celebrate the fact that we have religious freedom is very troubling and really speaks to the forces of secularization that are at work in Canadian society."

Mr Reid sees in the results a "potential for intolerance" towards believers, especially adherents of minority religions. Asked whether various groups' influence was growing or shrinking in Canada, respondents identified Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism as growing. Canada's more established religious groups were all seen to have a shrinking influence.

Ray Pennings, executive vice-president of Cardus, said he thinks "what we're talking about is a public narrative." He found significance in the finding that the two groups seen negatively are also those with visible religious symbols such as the hijab and turban. (The poll was taken in the same week that the Québec National Assembly passed Bill 62, which restricts the wearing of religious headgear when providing or receiving public services.) "Is it a discomfort with the particulars of their faith," Mr Pennings asked, "or is it a discomfort with the fact that they’re different than us?"

The pollsters asked about that -- about "cases where religious practice intersects with the public sphere". There was solid opposition to the niqab, a garment worn by some Muslim women that covers the entire face except the eyes. 49% of respondents said a woman in a niqab should be prohibited from visiting a government office and 29% said she should be discouraged but tolerated. Only 22% said the woman should be welcomed.

As is frequently seen on questions of religion, opinion in Québec was strongest on many of the questions. Fully 55% of Quebec respondents said Islam is damaging, and it was the only region where more people considered Judaism damaging (22%) than saw it as beneficial (11%). Québécois were most opposed to the niqab, with 68% saying it should be banned in government offices, which is the gist of Bill 62. They were also the most likely (31% vs 23% nationally) to identify increasing religious diversity as a bad thing.

Majority of Canucks think government "too generous" to asylum-seekers

Ten days ago, in "Canada braces for tsunami of DREAMers", Walt stated, as the fact is, that the anti-immigrant backlash in Canada is growing stronger and stronger, as 1000s of bogus "refugees" and asylum-seekers -- most of whom have lived in the USA for years -- cross the Canadian border illegally at places like Emerson MB and Lacolle QC.

Here we see a group of illegals, carrying their meager possessions, being welcomed by the Mounties at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle as they cross the border marked by the "No Pedestrians" sign. Since July 1st (Canada's sesquicentennial), nearly 8000 of these economic migrants -- that's what they are -- have walked across the border into Québec to make asylum claims.

Canada's Liberal -- very liberal -- government announced yesterday that the "temporary" reception centre at Lacolle will be made less temporary (not to say "permanent"), as hydro and other facilities are being installed and upgraded so the bogus refugees can be fed, sheltered and "processed" throughout the harsh Canadian winter.

How do Canuck taxpayers, who have to foot the bill -- minimum C$649 per month per asylum-seeker -- for all this openness to diversity feel about it? No need to guess. A recent public opinion poll from the Angus Reid Institute finds 53% of Canadians are of the opinion that the country's approach is too giving. That's more than eight times as many as those who say Canada is not being "generous enough".

Asked to weigh in on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s public statements about Canada welcoming refugees while also discouraging irregular border crossings, slightly more than half of Canadians (54%) say the PM’s messaging has been "unclear", and a majority (57%) disapprove of the Trudeau government's handling of the situation overall.

43% of the Canadians polled expected the number of illegal border crossings to increase "quite a bit" (23%) or "become a flood" (20%) before the end of 2017. (The poll was taken before Walt used the word "tsunami".) Asked how Canada should focus available resources, 70% would prioritize border monitoring and security over assistance to new arrivals, favoured by just 30%. No question was asked about the possibility of building a Trumpian wall, possibly for fear that the idea would appeal to a lot of Canucks who hadn't thought about it before.

Will Junior Trudeau and his Somali Muslim Minister of Refugees and Immigration pay any attention to this or other opinion polls? Errr, no. Lifetime pct .977.

Canadians found not so crazy about multiculturalism after all

Canada's state-owned broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (aka "Canadian Broadcorping Castration" -- look it up!) is so liberal, so politically correct, so Toronto-centric, so multiculti, that Canucks outside of Toronto have deserted its radio services in droves. Some believe that CBC's earnest programmes have better ratings when rebroadcast on PBR than they do at home.

Rumours of a "blacklash of the white flees" penetrated even the red walls of Fortress CBC in Toronto. In a rare fit of interest in what the Canadian public thinks, the limo liberals in the executive suites decided to commission a poll to find out what TROC really thinks about immigration, multiculturalism and "Canadian values and identity" -- this after pooh-poohing claims by Conservative leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch that these are issues which concern anyone other than a few rednecks in the wilds of Alberta.

Imagine the surprise and soiling of shorts in the CBC's John Street HQ when the poll conducted for them by the Angus Reid Institute confirmed that Canucks really do think differently from their "American cousins" when it comes to multiculturalism, immigration and values. But not in the way the CBC and its Liberal masters would like. Believe it or not, after half a century of having multiculturalism forced down their throats and up other orifices, Canadians are more likely than Americans to think minorities should assimilate. Here's the key finding.

To its credit, the CBC hasn't buried this story. It's the lead on the national radio news this morning and has a prominent position on the CBC News website, headlined "Canadians want minorities to do more to 'fit in'". Walt will let you read the complete poll results for yourself, but needs to draw attention to a pithy comment by Ujjal Dosangh, a Liberal former Premier of British Columbia and federal cabinet minister.

Mr Dosanjh has written and spoken extensively about the need to address concerns about equality, race and culture in the face of blind devotion to multiculturalism. He told the CBC that the poll shows Canada's political leadership needs to pay attention. "What you want is creative multiculturalism, generous multiculturalism," he said, "not unthinking or mindless multiculturalism where everything anybody brings to this country is acceptable."

"Diversity is great if we can begin to live with each other in equality, in understanding...but we also understand our collective obligations to building a better society. If we can't live together with each other properly and make concessions to each other, then this phrase that politicians use — that diversity is a strength — is nonsensical."

Further reading: "Multiculturalism: a failed experiment?", which I posted here six years (and a day) previously. Nice to see that others are starting to wake up and speak up!

Aesop's fable: The Grasshopper and the Ant - politically correct version

Canada's self-styled "national newspaper", the Globe and Mail, is one of the chief practitioners of political correctness, second only (in that country) to the CBC. Recently, however, they ran an editorial -- "The threat of political correctness, real and imagined" -- commenting on an Angus Reid survey which revealed that the overwhelming majority of Canadians polled think political correctness has gone too far.

The irony of the oh-so-PC Groan & Wail questioning its goodself was not lost on the majority of those who commented. (Gotta give the Globcredit for at least allowing comments.) Someone who posts under the pseudonym "ForsterBarry" put up this rather lengthy piece, which Walt thinks deserves to be reposted in full. It's the PC version of Aesop's fable of The Grasshopper and the Ant.

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears as support on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green". ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the SEIU group singing "We shall overcome". Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper, while he damns the ants. President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush 43, President Bush 41, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the Grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts The Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper. The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his freeloading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food, while the government house he is in -- which you may recall just happens to be the ant's old house -- crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug-related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighbourhood. The entire nation collapses, taking down the rest of the free world with it.

"Real Canadians hate Syrians!" - Calgary graffiti reflect poll results

As Walt told you on Thursday, Canadian Authorities [Capital "A" deliberate. Ed.] have been reluctant to admit that the couple who were victim/perpetrator of a murder-suicide in London, Ontario were migrants from Syria. No point in inflaming anti-Syrian, anti-Muslim, anti-refugee passions already raised to the boiling point by Young Trudeau's pledge to bring into the Great Not-so-white North even more than the 25,000 promised during last fall's election.

Why do I say Canadians are up in arms (figuratively speaking) about opening the floodgates still further? Here are two stories about the what "real Canadians" think of the idea of admitting to their society 1000s of Muslims who cannot or will not conform to the norms of western values. (Many of them didn't really want to come to Canada in the first place, and would like to go back home, but that's another story. See "Surprise! Syrian refugees welcomed by Canada want to go home", WWW 25/1/16)

We start with the results of a poll released by last week by the Angus Reid Institute under the headline "Canadians divided on legacy of Syrian refugee resettlement plan". Here are the key findings:

• Just over half (52%) of Canadians support the government’s plan, while 44 per cent oppose it
• Roughly two-in-five (42%) say Canada should stop taking in Syrian refugees immediately. The rest either say the country should stop at 25,000 refugees (29%), or accept even more (29%)
• Canadians are evenly divided on what the legacy of the resettlement program will be, with roughly the same number saying it will be viewed as a success (23%), a failure (24%), or neither (24%) 15 years from now (29% are unsure)

The researchers go on to say that "Regionally, Canadians remain divided about the plan, with support for it highest in British Columbia and Atlantic Canada, and lowest in Alberta." That brings us to a report from the Calgary Herald headlined "Police investigating after Calgary school hit again with hateful graffiti aimed at Syrians, Trudeau".

Inspector Knacker is said to be investigating after the walls of Wilma Hansen Junior High School were once again sprayed with hateful messages directed at Syrians and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On the walls of the school, someone spray-painted graffiti including "Syrians are animals" and "Real Canadians hate Syrians" as well as "Burn all mosques". Some of the messages also targeted Canuck Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, thus: "Syrians go home and take Trudeau" and "While Syrians feast in hotels, Canadians starve on the street, kill the traitor Trudeau."

So much for the Canadian version of Angela Merkel's "Willkommenskultur". And the Frostbacks are supposed to be such polite and tolerant people! Of course some would say that whoever committed this crime against political correctness aren't typical Canadians, but Albertans... more like Americans, really. Walt feels pretty sure that similar slogans will pop up from coast to coast to coast, although of course some will be in French. There may be no freedom of speech in the Canadian lamestream meeja, but the government has yet to prohibit the sale of paint bombs!

Angus Reid: pollster, Catholic, shit-disturber

Walt was pleased to discover, just today, that there really is an Angus Reid. As in "Angus Reid, polling and market research guru". Mr. Reid is a Canadian, born in Regina SK on 17 December 1947. That makes him old enough to retire, and he can well afford so to do, having sold the polling company named after him for $100 million.

But at only 67, he's far from ready to put down his clipboard and pencil. Last year, shaped by his early career as a sociology professor at the University of Manitoba, he founded the Angus Reid Institute, so he could conduct "investigative polling" on the issues of the day. He’s already spent almost $1 million of his own money on it, and takes no salary.

Why? Because, with media outlets, governments and academics drastically cutting their polling budgets, Angus Reid feels called to make available his own surveys on a host of social, moral, religious, cultural and political questions. He was inspired by his mother’s fascination with spirituality and philosophy, the Jesuits who educated him, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian who was executed for resisting the Nazis. Now Mr. Reid is ready to do some of his own "shit-disturbing". That's the way he puts it in "Angus Reid, unchained", an interview with Vancouver Sun's Douglas Todd. "Anything, in our view, is fair game," he told the columnist. "We rely on no corporation, government or other source of funding.... I’ve always wanted to have complete free rein in the research I do."

Mr. Reid says he's free, now, to look into controversial questions "without fear.” That’s because, unlike most other polling companies, he doesn't need to worry about offending or embarrassing corporate or political clients through his polling, which is based on sampling from a pool of 130,000 Canadians who have registered with the Angus Reid Forum. [There's a link to the forum at the end of this post. Ed.]

Angus Reid is a practising Catholic, and attends Christ the Redeemer Church in West Vancouver. As such, he's not always pleased by the answers he gets to his questions on issues with moral as well as political dimensions.

For instance, he was dismayed by respondents' backing of assisted suicide, which he worries will be dangerous when doctors start “handing out suicide pills.” His poll on palliative care also showed how this potential alternative to assisted suicide is offered haphazardly.

He is likewise unimpressed that "a very large chunk of Canadians believe abortion is OK for choosing desirable characteristics in your kids." The era of designer babies may be upon us, he warns. His polling consistently reveals that Canadians (as well as Americans) are succumbing to the "trivialization of morality", including an obsession with the antics of celebrities.

"Consumerism is the new religion," Mr. Reid said. The number of Canadians who are "anti-religious" has risen to 30%. Another 40%  are in the “muddled middle” with regards to spirituality. And young people are increasingly uninterested in prayer. In his opinion, "These people don’t have any serenity in their lives."

Walt finds Mr. Reid's remarks sad commentary on the morals and mores of the society in which we live. But this is the kind of information we -- especially our political and religious leaders -- need if they are to guide us out of the morass of spiritual and ethical decay into which we have sunk.

The danger already too evident is that the same "leaders" will substitute poll results for their own moral compasses. "Never mind what's right! Do what's popular!" God save us!


Useful link: Want to make your opinions matter and get rewarded for your feedback? Click here to join the Angus Reid Forum (brought to you by Vision Critical). Does doing these surveys make any difference? Considering that governments and businesses pay thousands of dollars for polling, Walt believes so.