Reconciliation biggest casualty of blockades, survey suggests

As a series of blockades this month in protest against a $6.6-billion natural gas pipeline being built on First Nations territory brought much of Canada’s rail freight traffic to a halt, politicians and critics of the protests complained that the country ’s economy and the rule of law were taking a severe battering at the hands of protesters.

However, a new survey suggests that while most Canadians share that assessment, they also feel that the protests have carved an even deeper scar into efforts to promote reconciliation with Canada’s First Nations.

An Angus Reid online survey conducted Feb. 25-26 of 1,501 respondents found that Canadians “overwhelmingly” feel that the protests have been a step backward for relations between Canada and Indigenous peoples, with 80 per cent feeling that reconciliation has been negatively affected by the ongoing events. A comparable proportion — 78 per cent — felt the blockades had done damage to Canada’s reputation as a place for investment.

The country was more divided over what approach to take to end the crisis, with 47 per cent calling for patience and a negotiation while 53 per cent want the blockades lifted by “whatever legal force is necessary to end the blockades now.”

There was far more consensus when it came to the public’s perception of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had handled the issue, with 70 per cent of all respondents saying he had done a bad job.

Even when the responses were broken down by political affiliation, only 50 per cent of respondents who described themselves as Liberals felt the prime minister had done a good job dealing with the blockades, while 41 per cent felt he had not.