Canadians suspect CSIS investigations affected by ethnicity

Canadians suspect CSIS investigations affected by ethnicity

James Gordon
CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

OTTAWA - A majority of Canadians believe the country's spy service might treat citizens differently because of their ethnicity, an internal poll has found.

The survey conducted for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) by Ekos Research Associates last October found 52 per cent of people interviewed thought race could affect how the agency interacts with people.

That finding, which appears under the headline "concerns" in a summary of survey results, comes amid sustained accusations by Canadian Muslims that the service engages in racial profiling.

CSIS spokeswoman Barbara Campion denied CSIS engages in racial profiling, suggesting in an interview Monday that people shouldn't read too much into the results, given the vague wording of the question.

"The term 'differently' wasn't defined very clearly during the polling, so it's difficult to draw a definite conclusion from that result," she argued.

"We target individuals based on their activities, not at all based on anything else.''

She confirmed it is still a concern for the agency, however.

"CSIS is aware that it needs to do some work with respect to building bridges and forging strong relationships, especially with the Muslim community in this country," she said, noting the service regularly attends meetings with various ethno-cultural groups across Canada to provide information and dispel "misconceptions" about what CSIS does.

Other poll findings include:

- A majority (65 per cent) of people were aware the service existed, while about one in three had never heard of it;

- Visible minorities were less likely to know about CSIS (55 per cent) than non-visible minorities (68 per cent);

- Thirty-seven per cent of those polled had a positive view of the service, compared with 14 who held a negative impression. Forty-three per cent were neutral.

Campion said the agency is "very pleased" with the overall results.

She pointed out 79 per cent of Canadians believe it is "very important" that a service like CSIS exists, adding a majority of youth under age 25 have a positive view of the agency.

Yet accusations of racial profiling leveled mostly by Canadian Islamic groups continue to dog CSIS and the RCMP.

Last summer, the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) released a study claiming both CSIS and the RCMP regularly intimidate and threaten community members in their hunt for terrorists.

CAIR-CAN spokeswoman Halima Mautbur said there hasn't been much improvement since.

"Unfortunately, we still continue to receive complaints about CSIS, and I think the perception within the community is still largely the same," she said Monday.

Mautbur added while CSIS has been participating in some community meetings, the outreach efforts lag behind those of the RCMP.

"It just hasn't resulted in anything yet" beyond a stated willingness to improve relations, she said.

The poll was conducted Oct. 21 to 31, 2005, and the analysis is based on telephone surveys with 1,010 Canadians. It is considered accurate to within 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Ottawa Citizen
© CanWest News Service 2006