More than half of Canadians no longer feel safe in their neighbourhoods, poll finds

A strong majority of Canadians feel they have the right to defend their home against intruders — and more than half say they don’t always feel safe in their neighbourhoods and that the justice system is working against their interests, new polling shows.

“I don’t think that’s a healthy sentiment in Canada if over half don’t really feel the justice system is working in their interest,” Andrew Enns, Leger’s executive vice-president, said Tuesday about the findings of a new national Postmedia-Leger poll.

The pollster said that could lead to situations where people say, “the law doesn’t respect me, why should I respect the law?”

Eighty-seven per cent of respondents sided with using reasonable force against an intruder. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, as well as among Canadians aged 55 and up, the number of those who believe citizens have the right to defend themselves during a break-in climbed to 92 per cent.

“My sense is I don’t think that’s suddenly shot up out of nowhere,” Enns said.

Enns pointed out that home invasions aren’t, unfortunately, new to Canada.

“You always sort of feel that, if it was my house, I would do whatever I had to to defend my family. It’s a high number and certainly it’s going to get attention,” Enns said of the 87 per cent figure. “But I think that if we asked that a couple of years ago, I think it would have been still fairly high.”

The poll was conducted after the Aug. 18 incident where Kawartha Lakes Police charged a Lindsay, Ont., homeowner with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon after he allegedly used a knife against an intruder armed with a crossbow.

After police charged the homeowner, Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke out about a person’s right to protect themself and their family from home intruders and said the justice system is “broken.”

In late August, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the federal government to spell out in law that Canadians have the right to use force, including deadly force, against someone who enters their home illegally and poses a threat to their safety.

When asked how often they worry about general safety, including home break-ins, in the neighbourhood where they live, just over half (51 per cent) of those questioned in the recent poll said they either “worry a lot” (13 per cent) or “worry sometimes” (38 per cent).

Enns pointed out that the number of Canadians worried about general safety peaked at 57 per cent amongst people between the ages of 35 and 54. “That’s also the demographic that is probably most likely to have family in the household and to be a homeowner,” he said.

On the flip side, 38 per cent of those polled responded that they “rarely worry,” and 11 per cent said they “never worry.” In rural areas, the number of those who indicated they’re not worried about break-ins jumped to 60 per cent.

More than half of those polled (54 per cent) said they “feel the justice system — the courts and the laws — is working against the interests of law-abiding citizens.” Support peaked for that sentiment in British Columbia, at 59 per cent.

Nearly a third of respondents (29 per cent) indicated “the justice system is protecting the interests of Canadians,” and 17 per cent said they “don’t know.”

Leger’s online survey of 1,592 Canadians aged 18 or older was conducted between Sept. 5 and 7. A margin of error cannot be calculated for a panel survey. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of the same size would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

• Doug Ford says ‘something is broken’ after Ontario man charged with assaulting armed home intruder
• Poilievre pushes law change to allow deadly force against home intruders

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