Less Than Half of Canadians Think Government Respects Rights and Freedoms: Report

A view of Centre Block, the main building on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

Less than 50 percent of Canadians say they believe the government respects rights and freedoms, according to a report from the Public Safety Ministry.

The Departmental Results Report, which looks at the performance and results of the ministry and compares it to the targets set, found that 43 percent of the population think the federal government “respects individual rights and freedoms while ensuring the safety of Canadians.”

There is no previous years’ data to compare the results to, but the ministry says the target is 70 percent.

A drop was also seen in the number of partners that said Public Safety Canada “provides effective policy leadership and operational coordination on national security issues.”

In 2022, that number was 76 percent, while this year’s statistics show it has dropped to 55 percent.

Public Affairs also said the number of Canadians who find public safety research and policy documents useful is declining, going from 91 percent of people who consulted the information in 2020 to 70 percent in 2023.

The numbers are not surprising as freedoms around the world have been decreasing since the pandemic, according to the Human Freedom Index, a joint report by the Cato Institute and the Fraser Institute.

Canada dropped about six positions in its freedom ranking, the index showed. The country is now ranked 13th, behind many European countries, like Switzerland, Estonia, Denmark, and Sweden, as well as New Zealand, Ireland and Australia, among others.

Crime Severity Keeps Going Up

Another aspect of the report is crime severity, which shows that the number of crimes and the seriousness of those crimes have been on the rise in Canada.

While the goal for Public Safety Canada is to get the crime severity index (CSI) to 70 or lower, for the last three years it has steadily increased passed that mark.

In 2020, crime severity was 74, it went up to 75 in 2021, and in 2022 it was 75, the report said.

Violent crimes are at a record high, according to Statistics Canada, which released annual CSI information in July.

“The violent CSI rose in 2022, reaching its highest point since 2007,” StatCan said in its introduction to the numbers. “The consecutive increases recorded in the overall CSI may indicate a return to the upward trend in crime observed before the start of the pandemic.”

According to the numbers, the overall CSI jumped 4.27 percent in 2022, and the violent CSI increased 4.61 percent in 2022. The 10-year average shows the violent crime severity index for Canada rose from 74 to over 97.

Public Affairs Canada says there has been success with public safety programs that target at-risk populations.

Department statistics show that the number of programs resulting in positive changes for participants grew from 58 percent in 2020 to 85 percent in 2023.

Impaired Driving Numbers Rise

The government said they’ve seen an increase in Canadians who are driving impaired.

The number of Canadians who report driving within two hours of using cannabis has climbed from 19 percent in 2020 to 23 percent in the latest numbers.

A 2022 Public Safety report said that marijuana had become a “major contributor” to fatal road accidents.

“Drug-impaired driving is a major contributor to fatal road crashes, and young people continue to be the largest group of drivers who die in crashes and test positive for drugs,” the Public Opinion Research on Drug Impaired Driving report said.

Research also found that most cannabis users didn’t consider themselves unfit to get behind the wheel after using the drug.

“Among those who have operated a vehicle while under the influence of cannabis, most said they did not recognize their behaviour as risky, with two in five (39 percent) reporting they did not feel impaired and one in five (23 percent) believing they could (still) drive carefully,” the report said.

Public Safety Canada dedicates $604.9 million of its budget toward community safety initiatives, the departmental report said. Of that, 23 percent is committed to crime prevention, 25 percent to law enforcement and policing, and 8 percent to tackling serious and organized crime in the country.

Doug Lett and Issac Teo contributed to this report.