Israel losing Canadian hearts and minds as poll shows growing outrage over Gaza

“There is absolutely disappointment in the actions of the current Israeli government,” said Adam Chapnick, a professor with the Royal Military College.

“That doesn’t mean that they are long-term necessarily becoming less sympathetic to Israel as a whole.”

The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey last week of a demographically weighted sample of 1,522 Canadian adults. Because the poll was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.

Of the Canadians polled, 37 per cent said their sympathies lie with Palestinians, just 19 per cent said the same about Israelis and 27 per cent said they support both groups equally.

When Angus Reid asked the same question in May 2024, 28 per cent reported feeling more sympathy for Palestinians, 25 per cent said they were more sympathetic to Israelis and 27 per cent said they supported both equally.

When the pollster asked that question back in November 2023, shortly after the Hamas attack on Israel, just 18 per cent of Canadians leaned toward sympathizing with Palestinians, while Israelis received 28 per cent support.

The new poll suggests some 62 per cent of Canadians see Israel’s military actions since March of this year as “excessive,” while just over half of Canadians believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“The perception in Canada that genocide is taking place has increased significantly from 41 per cent in February 2024 to 52 per cent now,” Angus Reid reports in the polling it released Thursday morning.

At least two-thirds of those who say they vote for the Liberals, the NDP or the Bloc Québécois told Angus Reid they believe a genocide is taking place in Gaza, while 51 per cent of Conservative supporters disagreed with that statement.

Some 64 per cent of Canadians told the pollster that what’s happening in Gaza “is a moral outrage,” a number that rises to 70 per cent among those aged 55 or older. Another 18 per cent of respondents say the humanitarian situation in Gaza is being “overblown” in media reports, while just as many say they aren’t sure.

Angus Reid reports 61 per cent of Canadians now say they believe Israel “is intentionally obstructing the distribution of aid and food to civilians in Gaza,” while 46 per cent say “Hamas is stealing food and aid that should be going to civilians.”

Hamas killed 1,200 people in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed 60,000 people, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry. Israel says its aim is to rout Hamas and force it to return the hostages it took in the Oct. 7 attack. Many family members of the hostages have argued that the Israeli government’s pursuit of the war is delaying their loved ones’ release.

Israel has insisted for weeks that Hamas is stealing food aid in large quantities, while international organizations and the United Nations have said there is no proof of this happening on a large scale.

Israel used its claim about Hamas diverting aid to justify cutting off all food aid in the enclave for nearly three months. Israel has since set up a series of aid distribution sites in Gaza where Israeli troops and American contractors have shot dead hundreds of people seeking food.

While Israel insists there is no starvation in Gaza, most other countries, prominent aid groups, doctors working on the ground and U.S. President Donald Trump have said otherwise.

Of those polled by Angus Reid most recently, 74 per cent said they support Israel’s right to exist and 63 per cent said peace is not possible in Israel while Hamas is still operating in Gaza.

“Canadians aren’t that far from where they’ve traditionally been,” said Chapnick, who has researched the evolution of Canada’s foreign policy through the decades.

“What they’re saying is that Hamas has to be dealt with. They’re not particularly happy with the way the Israeli government has dealt with Hamas. So Canadians seem to be more disappointed with the process than with the idea.”

Chapnick said Israel’s reputation in Canada going forward will likely depend on who succeeds Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His government relies on the support of right-wing coalition members who have made numerous provocative statements and have threatened to topple the government if Netanyahu ends the war.

Also, 61 per cent of respondents to the recent Angus Reid poll say they support Prime Minister Mark Carney’s commitment to recognizing a Palestinian state — and 62 per cent said Canada should not back down from that position under pressure from the Trump administration.

Another 54 per cent of those polled said Ottawa should do more to ensure it’s not allowing exports of lethal arms to Israel.

Chapnick said these numbers closely mirror Carney’s policy choices.

“The prime minister and the public are on almost exactly the same page, and it’s chicken-and-egg to know which actually came first,” he said, noting that support for Canada staying out of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 surged after then-prime minister Jean Chrétien opted against joining the military mission.

Another poll reports Canadians’ stated confidence in the prospects for peace in the Middle East has returned to historical levels following the October 2023 attacks, with most Canadians now expressing pessimism.

That poll of 1,579 Canadians, conducted by Leger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies between June 20 and 22, suggests 38 per cent of Canadians feel “lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians can be reached in the future,” while 62 per cent disagree.

The Leger numbers from late June do show a shift since January 2024, when 29 per cent of Canadians said they felt peace was possible and 60 per cent disagreed. Polling conducted in October 2023, when the Hamas attack was very fresh in Canadians’ minds, found that just 19 per cent thought peace was possible and 51 per cent disagreed.

Younger Canadians are more optimistic. The late June poll suggests that 53 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 believe peace is possible.

Leger cautions that the numbers were more ambivalent just two weeks prior, when the polling firm surveyed 1,511 Canadians between June 6 and 8 and gave respondents the option of saying they weren’t sure or didn’t want to answer.

In that poll, only 28 per cent of Canadians reported being optimistic about peace, while 31 per cent said they did not want to answer or were not sure.

Among those aged 18 to 24, 32 per cent chose not to answer the question and 40 per cent said that peace was possible.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.