Race Relations in Canada 2024

Since 2019, the Environics Institute for Survey Research has partnered with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) to conduct a series of national surveys on race relations in Canada. This landmark research establishes critical benchmark indicators of perspectives and experiences across the country's diverse population, that document the current reality and progress over time.

The purpose of this research is to generate credible, independent, empirically-derived evidence that will be widely referenced and used across Canadian sectors and communities. Such information can serve as point of common ground that brings different stakeholders together, and also provide a means for measuring progress (or the lack of progress) over time. This research is intended to provide information metrics to organizations in the public, private and non-profit sectors who are working to reduce racism both internally and in broader society.

This latest survey updates the data collected in 2019 and 2021, and expands to address two new themes:

• Experience with hate incidents and hate crimes - the first national survey to address this issue in depth, both in terms of personal and indirect experiences; and
• Attitudes, perceptions and experiences with respect to discrimination against Muslims and Jewish people in Canada.

The research consisted of a main survey conducted online between February 12 and March 13, 2024 with 4,470 Canadians (ages 18+), and a supplementary survey conducted online between November 18 and 25, 2024 with 616 Canadians who identify as Jewish (by religion, ethnicity and/or culture). The sample for the main survey was stratified to ensure representation by province, age, education and gender, and also included over-samples of individuals who self-identify as Chinese, Black, South Asian or Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) (the four largest racialized populations in Canada).

Executive summary

This latest research, once again, documents the reality of racism, prejudice and hate in Canadian society, and the extent to which it is pervasive across the population and persistent over time. Discrimination and mistreatment due to one’s ethnicity or race is experienced by people in all parts of society, and is something that happens in the street, the workplace, at school and online. While no group remains untouched, racism is most widely experienced by Canadians who are Indigenous or Black, although it is by no means an uncommon experience among other racialized groups. The research also confirms that this reality is widely recognized and acknowledged by most Canadians, through their own experience, indirectly through the experiences of others they know, and what they generally understand to be happening in their communities and in broader society. Very few today express the opinion that racism does not exist in this country, even if many may not fully appreciate the scope and harm it inflicts on those affected.

This third national survey conducted since 2019 shows a general continuity of experiences and perspectives, in terms of how race relations are viewed and experienced generally and within specific groups. It also reveals how perspectives are influenced by broader events. The 2021 survey recorded increasing public awareness and recognition of racism in Canada in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, the Black Lives Matter movement and the anti-Asian sentiment arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Three years later, these events are now in the past, and the trajectory of public perspective about race and racism has reversed course and now more closely resembles what was recorded in 2019. Significantly, this latest shift is evident across the population – and, in some cases, is most notable among racialized Canadians.

The 2024 survey broadened the scope to address how Canadians view the treatment of people who are Muslim or Jewish, which is now particularly relevant given how the current has led to rising antisemitic, anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim incidents across this country. The research shows that the public recognizes that both Muslims and Jews are as likely as other racialized Canadians to experience discrimination (including hate-motivated harassment), and this is consistent with what Muslims and Jews themselves report in this survey.

This research is the most comprehensive national survey to date focusing on Canadians’ experience with hate, a rapidly spreading form of anti-social aggressive racism directed at people, most commonly because of their race, ethnicity or religion. The results show that a small, but significant, minority of Canadians report having been definitely (7%) or possibly (8%) targeted by a hate incident or crime in the past year, and others have had indirect exposure through the experiences of other people they know. In total, three in ten (29%) Canadians have been exposed to hate directly or indirectly in the past year, due to how one is who they are or how they are perceived by others. Not surprisingly, such experiences with hate are most common among Canadians who are also most likely to experience racism in other forms, but especially people who are First Nations, Black or Jewish, as well as those who are Muslim or 2SLGBQ+.

While much of the attention given to hate incidents focuses on what takes place online through social media, Canadians are much more likely to experience hate incidents in person, mostly in public settings, in schools or at home. Incidents were most apt to involve verbal abuse or insults, and to a lesser extent threats to cause injury, physical assault, defacement of or damage to property, and sexual assault. Only one in four people experiencing a hate incident in the past year reported it to the police or another authority, and few among them could say this has yet resulted in a satisfactory outcome.

The prevalence and persistence of racism notwithstanding, the research indicates that Canadian society is not defined by inter-group conflict and social divisiveness. Most Canadian believe that race relations are generally good in terms of how people from different groups get along and in the equality of opportunity for all, and a majority are at least somewhat optimistic that racial equality will happen in their lifetime. This positive perspective has strengthened over the past three years, most notably among Black and most other racialized people, who are now more positive about the future than white Canadians.

For more information:  Keith Neuman