A CBC article on a survey of how many Canadians experience racism originally misled Canadians by overstating the results by 400%.
The article which was originally titled “It’s a constant battle’: Nearly 40% of Canadians experience racism in the workplace” inflated the survey’s results by five times the actual 8% of Canadians who experienced racial discrimination while at work.
Statistics in the piece come from the Environics Institute’s 2019 Race Relations in Canada report.
The article was eventually edited and the following correction was added to the bottom of the piece.
“In fact, the 40 per cent was a subset of the 20 per cent of survey respondents who said they experienced some form of racial discrimination, meaning eight per cent of Canadians experienced racial discrimination at work,” read the correction.
The current headline of the piece reads “‘It’s a constant battle’: 20% of Canadians say they experience racism, survey reveals” which, as the correction notes, only makes up 8% of the population who has reported experiencing racial discrimination.
“Those who report any experience with discrimination due to race or ethnicity were asked to specify in which of eight settings this has taken place. Mostly commonly identified are experiences on the street (38%) and in the workplace (38%),” writes the Environics study.
In reality, the survey points to several positive attitudes about race in Canada, despite CBC’s reporting. The survey found that 60% of respondents say they are very or somewhat optimistic about racial respect in Canada.
Another 81% of Canadians are also reporting that race relations “in their own community are generally good in terms of how well people from different races get along with one another.”
