Public Opinion
An EKOS poll conducted in December 2009 revealed that 83% of the respondents believed the government knew Afghan detainees were tortured. This was a consistent result across all age groups, genders and geographic locations. It also concluded that 41% of respondents were dissatisfied with the governments transparency on the issue, and only 24% were satisfied. The remaining 35% were still undecided or had no opinion. As time progressed, 61% of Canadians still believed Afghan detainees were tortured in May 2010, according an Ipsos-Reid poll. This poll also found that 52% of respondents believed that Stephen Harper and Canadian soldiers knew torture was occurring, and 75% believed senior military officials would have known about the problem. A poll done by Angus Reid during 5 January and 6, found that 38 per cent of Canadians believed that Harper used the 30 December 2009 prorogation to curtail the Canadian Afghan detainee issue.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Afghan Detainee Issue
Famous quotes related to public opinion:
“The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)