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	Canadian Sociologist Slams 'Flawed' Poll on Sex Abuse Crisis By Patrick Craine Lifesite News May 4, 2010 http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10050307.html Sociologist Reginald Bibby, revered as one of Canada's lead observers on religious trends, has slammed an Ipsos-Reid poll released last month that claimed that two million Canadians personally know someone who was sexually abused by a Catholic priest. The poll, commissioned by Canwest News Service and Global Television, was released April 12th. Global National anchor Kevin Newman led with the poll that day and claimed that it "hints at just how widespread the problem of pedophilia may be." Of 1,003 Canadians the pollster surveyed by phone at the beginning of April, eight per cent said they personally knew a victim of sexual assault by a priest. The pollster extrapolated that percentage to the Canadian population to come up with the figure of two million. In another result that was given wide coverage, fifty-eight per cent of respondents, including fifty-four per cent of those identifying as Catholic, said they believe Pope Benedict XVI has "perpetuated a climate of silence and cover up around pedophile and hebephile priests." "Two million people is a shocking number," said John Wright, senior vice president of Ipsos-Reid, according to the Regina Post-Leader. "This is not something that can evade scrutiny." "If we were experiencing H1N1 tomorrow with two million people, we would in fact shut down this country, because it would be a calamity," he told Global National. "We're dealing with what appears to be an epidemic." But according to Dr. Bibby, who serves as the Board of Governors Research Chair in the department of sociology at the University of Lethbridge, this "alleged discovery ... needs to be described as inaccurate and unnecessarily inflammatory." Writing in the Edmonton Journal, Bibby emphasizes that he has "no pro-Catholic axe to grind," but he insists that "the best interests of everyone are not served by hyperbole - including hyperbole on the part of pollsters who should know better." "If [Wright] were in my survey methods class, he would have received an 'F' for this project," he added. Bibby contrasts the notions of 'awareness' and 'incidence', pointing out as an example the fact that probably 90% of Canadians know someone who is divorced, whereas only about 15% have gone through divorce. "Awareness does not equal incidence. Both are important. But obviously they are two very different things," he said. In this case, he said Ipsos-Reid polled awareness rather than incidence. "One person in a neighbourhood or larger community could have been assaulted -- and hundreds and maybe thousands of people would be aware of it," he said. "No time frame was given, meaning awareness of an incident could span up to 80 or 90 years -- not just the post-1950s, for example. In short, the reporting net was an extremely large one." "How on Earth do Canadians have the inside scoop on whether or not the Pope has been a part of the alleged scandal?" Bibby questioned further. "A followup question to the effect of, 'On what are you basing your opinion?' may have been extremely telling." "Obviously, most Canadians who offered a take were simply offering views based on information they have received from media and acquaintances," he said, regarding the allegations against the pope. "In short, the item doesn't tell us very much - beyond Canadian conjecture." Asked for a response to Bibby's column, Wright defended his claims, though he offered no response to Bibby's arguments. "2,000,000 people aware of someone in their immediate family or circle of friends and acquaintances who has been sexually molested or abused by a Roman Catholic Priest IS a shocking number (with a margin of error it could be as low as 1,400,000 or as high as 2,600,000)," Wright wrote LifeSiteNews in an e-mail. "I've being doing this for 21 years and Ipsos is a $1.6 Billion research with a stellar public record for analysis, integrity and unbiased commentary," he continued. "One letter to an editor from a University sociologist isn't going to diminish this."
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