MEMO #2: COVID-19 Misinformation and Protester Violence

Executive Summary

Canadians broadly support continued action against COVID-19, and no major political party built its 2021 election campaign around opposition to vaccines, vaccine passports, or lockdowns. Yet a vocal and sometimes violent minority disrupting political rallies drove a disproportionate share of election media coverage. Analyzing 8,709 Canadian news headlines from Aug. 27 to Sept. 9, the Media Ecosystem Observatory found 3.1 percent (268 stories) referenced the protests, exceeding coverage of Afghanistan (2.3 percent) and gun control (2.3 percent), even though fewer than 4 percent of Canadians said they had or intended to participate in any rally, protest, or demonstration during the campaign.

Survey data show most Canadians strongly oppose the protesters' objectives: 73 percent support vaccine passports, 69 percent support stronger federal intervention against variants, and healthcare and COVID-19 rank as the first and second most important election issues. Asked about the protests targeting Trudeau, respondents most often reported disgust (37 percent) or anger (26 percent), though 78 percent also believe candidates should be able to speak freely even when disagreed with.

Still, a non-negligible share reacted positively to the escalating protests, with 10 percent reporting amusement and 7 percent reporting happiness about the hostile disruptions of Liberal campaign events. Positive reactions were significantly more likely among Canadians holding COVID-19 misperceptions, conspiracy beliefs, or opposition to vaccine passports, with those reacting positively twice as likely to hold COVID-19 misperceptions as those who did not. When presented with a hypothetical protest, nearly half of respondents supported peaceful, disruptive sign-carrying protest, but support fell sharply when protesters yelled insults and fell further still when protests involved death threats to politicians, with these declines compounded when the protest was linked to misinformation. Findings draw on analysis of headlines from 161 Canadian media organizations' Facebook pages and surveys of 1,740 Canadian voters (Aug. 31–Sept. 6, on reactions to the protests) and 4,074 respondents (Aug. 23–Sept. 8, on COVID-19 and vaccine passport opinions).