The tolerance of individual Canadians for radical forms of environmental activism depends on several factors. Overall, however, Canadians do not support vandalism or violence as forms of protest. Those are the key findings of a new study by researchers from McGill University and Université Laval.

“There is a very clear red line: people accept peaceful tactics, are hesitant about disruptive forms of protest, but almost unanimously reject destruction and violence as means of political contestation. Even those who express strong concern about climate change do not cross that line,” said Alexis Bibeau-Gagnon, a postdoctoral researcher in McGill University’s Department of Political Science and the study’s lead author.

The research team analyzed data from a survey of 1,500 Canadians conducted during the summer of 2022.

The findings show that younger individuals (under age 33), those who are more concerned about climate change and those who believe that governments or large corporations, rather than individuals, are primarily responsible for climate change are more likely to tolerate disruptive forms of environmental protest. Even within these groups, however, the threshold of acceptance does not extend to violence.

Survey participants were asked to indicate their level of support for a range of increasingly radical tactics by environmental activists, from signing a petition to committing violence against people in positions of power. Other tactics included divestment campaigns, blocking roads or bridges and acts of vandalism.

Respondents were also asked which groups they considered most responsible for climate change – individuals, governments or large corporations – as well as how concerned they were about the climate crisis.

“This helps explain why the more radical segments of the climate movement struggle to win public support, even as concern about climate change continues to grow,” said Bibeau-Gagnon. “It reveals what we see as a fundamental tension in democratic societies between the urgency of addressing climate change and the constraints imposed by a public that does not support more radical methods of action.”

The survey was commissioned by Université Laval’s Observatoire de recherche en économie verte and Chaire de leadership en enseignement des sciences sociales numériques, and was conducted by the polling firm Synopsis.

Bibeau-Gagnon, whose broader research focuses on radical political protest, including riots and disruptive collective action in democratic societies, said he plans to continue exploring environmental protest movements in a future research project.

Who Endorses Environmental Activism? Understanding Public Tolerance for Radical Environmental Action in Canada, by Alexis Bibeau-Gagnon, Alexandre Pelletier, Hubert Cadieux and Yannick Dufresne, was published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science / la Revue canadienne de science politique.