More than half of Canadians think that gov’t institutions are ‘systemically racist’: poll

The poll was conducted on Feb. 2 and 3 as part of Black History Month, and also asked Canadians if they thought that black history was being taught enough in Canada's schools.

According to the poll, which was performed for Global News by Ipsos, there is a direct correlation between the age of the participants in the poll and how unlikely they thought that Canadian institutions were racist. Canadians 55 years old were nine percent less likely to believe in systemic racism.

Shanze Khan, who works for Ipsos, said that one potential reason for this is that people in that age group perhaps "haven’t experienced systemic racism as much themselves."

"When you haven’t seen that much of it yourself, you perceive that it’s less of a problem overall," Khan continued, adding that people are often "reflecting on what they were taught".

"Younger Canadians who potentially have been more exposed to the diverse histories of the country do not feel that way. There must be a correlation between education and whether you believe there is systemic racism or not."