Poll suggests half of Canadians believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

Palestinians carry bags containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed organization, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

OTTAWA — A new poll suggests that nearly half of Canadians believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza almost two years after the current conflict began.

In a survey conducted last weekend, the polling firm Leger asked Canadians and Americans a series of questions about the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Leger surveyed 1,511 Canadians and 1,011 Americans between June 6 and June 8. The poll cannot be assigned a margin of error because online surveys are not considered truly random samples.

The polling comes as the federal government is under pressure to take concrete steps to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

Leger asked respondents whether they “agree or disagree that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip” based on how they “define what constitutes a genocide.”

The UN declared genocide a crime under international law in 1946.

The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines it as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. That can include killing members of the group, causing them serious injury, deliberately inflicting conditions that can be dangerous to their lives, imposing measures to prevent births within the group, or forcibly transferring children from the group to another group.

Just less than half of the Canadian respondents, 49 per cent, said they agree that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, including 23 per cent who said they strongly agree and 26 per cent who said they somewhat agree.

Another 21 per cent said they disagree with the claim that Israel is committing genocide — 10 per cent said they somewhat disagree and 11 per cent said they strongly disagree. The remaining 30 per cent said they didn’t know or refused to answer.

Conservative supporters were the least likely to say they believe Israel is committing genocide, with 37 per cent agreeing with the statement and 33 per cent disagreeing.

More than 60 per cent of Liberal, NDP, Green Party and Bloc Québécois supporters said they agree Israel’s actions amount to genocide.

The poll was conducted just days before the Canadian government took action against Israeli cabinet ministers it accuses of inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

On Tuesday, a group of five countries including Canada announced sanctions against Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The five countries accused the ministers of calling for the displacement of Palestinians and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Last month, an open letter from Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Israeli military operations in Gaza and called the level of suffering in the territory “intolerable.”

The letter threatened concrete actions if the Israeli government did not allow more food aid into Gaza and end its military operations there. It also called on Hamas to release its remaining hostages.

In response to the genocide question, 38 per cent of Americans polled said they agree Israel is committing genocide, while 26 per cent said they disagree and 36 per cent said they don’t know.

Supporters of the Democrats - 52 per cent - and Americans under the age of 35 - 53 per cent - were the most likely to call the situation in Gaza a genocide.

More than half of Canadians, 54 per cent, said they don’t follow news about the Middle East or the current conflict in the Gaza Strip. Just nine per cent said they’re following news about the Gaza conflict very closely, and another 35 per cent said they’re following somewhat closely.

American respondents reported almost the same levels of engagement.

Despite that, 49 per cent of Canadians and 54 per cent of American respondents said they feel they have a very good or fairly good understanding of the conflict in Gaza.

Opinions on mainstream media reporting about the conflict were evenly split, with 20 per cent of Canadian respondents saying they feel the media has been “generally balanced.”

Another 20 per cent said they feel the coverage has been more favourable toward Palestinians and 21 per cent said it was more favourable to Israel.

American respondents reported almost identical responses.

Many Canadians surveyed were pessimistic about the possibility of a peaceful resolution.

When asked whether they believe that lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians can be reached, 41 per cent of Canadian respondents said no, 28 per cent said yes and 31 per cent said they don’t know.

Canadian respondents over age 55 were the least optimistic — 51 per cent of them said a lasting peace cannot be achieved.

Americans were more evenly split, with 34 per cent saying they think peace is out of reach and 33 per cent saying it can be achieved.

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.

— With files from David Baxter

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2025.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press