Most Canadians don't support defunding the police: Report

Canada's Public Safety department commissioned confidential research on whether to defund police. Data showed the most significant number of Canadians surveyed said police should get more money, not less.

"Canadians are divided in their preferences for police funding models," said the study, Attitudes Towards Bias Sensitivity, Diversity And Identity In National Security And Law Enforcement. The Department of Public Safety spent $114,513 on the survey by Environics Research, reported Blacklock's.

The survey intended to "better assess the Canadian public’s understanding of bias sensitivity considerations in national security and law enforcement," wrote Environics. Findings were based on questionnaires with 2,590 people nationwide.

The Public Safety survey found three in ten Canadians considered bias a significant issue in law enforcement.

Asked, "There has been some discussion lately about the impacts of bias and law enforcement work in Canada. How much of a problem do you think this is?"

Twenty-two percent called it a minor issue or no problem at all. Only ten percent called it "a very big problem."

Also asked, "When it comes to the role of the police and how they are funded, which would you choose?"

Twenty-nine percent said police funding should be increased, and 27 percent said budgets should be maintained. "28 percent would prefer to see police budgets and staffing reduced with the money reallocated to social services," wrote researchers.

Police were most popular with recent immigrants and Canadians over 60 and least popular with university graduates and young people under 29. Only one percent of Canadians nationwide considered it a priority to “add social workers to assist police officers."

Nationwide, support for bigger police budgets ranged from 40 percent in British Columbia to 39 percent in Alberta, 33 percent in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, 32 percent in Atlantic Canada and 24 percent in Ontario and Quebec.

The study followed Black Lives Matter rallies over the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. At the height of the movement, July 5, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined demonstrators kneeling outside Parliament Hill, prompting protests from the RCMP Veterans’ Association.

"The Prime Minister and all members of Parliament who try to gain political points on the back of RCMP members should show some discomfort and embarrassment," wrote the Association in a letter to Trudeau.

"In fact, they should have asked for explanations and valid and dependable statistics before identifying our members as racist and, by doing so, humiliating us by kneeling down as if demanding pardon for our renowned organization that has served our country with honour, integrity and devotion for the last 147 years."