Three weeks after the unveiling of Hockey Canada’s action plan, more than half of Canadians (58%) say they are skeptical about the real impact such a strategy can bring.
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This is the result of a survey by Angus Reid published on Wednesday. That percentage rises to 62% for women, who say they’re not very optimistic the plan will improve the treatment of women and girls in hockey culture.
“That’s a significant amount of skepticism. So, if anything, Hockey Canada isn’t just sitting on a culture problem. It can also be a pretty big trust issue,” said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, in an interview with Global News.
According to the survey, 58% of those interested in junior hockey say they are following the situation with interest. From the same group of respondents, 56% believe harassment and sexual assault is a significant problem in the world of hockey.
A total of 2,279 Canadian Angus Reid Forum members completed the survey between August 8th and 10th. While it’s impossible to assign an exact margin of error to online surveys, the margin for a survey of comparable size would be plus or minus two percentage points, 19 out of 20, said the institute’s Angus Reid.