Ipsos / Dying With Dignity online poll was skewed.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Ipsos and Dying With Dignity (DWD) conducted an online opinion poll showing strong support for expanding Canada's euthanasia law to include incompetent people who previously requested and dropping the terminal illness requirement for euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. 

Online polls are done by sending questions to a select group of online participants. Each question includes an explanation of the question with further information connected to the poll provided by the sponsor of the poll. Online polls enable special interest groups to have greater support for their position in the poll.

The Canadian Healthcare Network commented on the Ipsos / DWD poll by stating:

The online survey of 3,500 Canadians was conducted by Ipsos from Jan. 21 to 27, a period that overlapped with the government’s own consultations. 

Internet-based polls cannot be given a margin of error because they are not considered random samples. 

Dying with Dignity Canada is a national non-profit advocacy group that champions end-of-life rights.

March 21 - 24, 2016 Angus Reid did a scientific poll where they found that the majority of Canadians oppose many of the recommendations in the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying report (report).

The report of the Special Joint Committee recommended wide-open rules for euthanasia but the survey found that the majority oppose "assisted death" for most reasons. 

For instance, the survey found that 78% of Canadians opposed euthanasia for people with severe psychological suffering but no terminal illness.The Angus Reid survey also  found that support for assisted death was limited based on circumstance: 

• 36% support when a person with multiple conditions like arthritis and diabetes feels overwhelmed and wants to die,
• 31% support when a person has no hope for the future and finds no meaning in their life,
• 26% support when a person's care is perceived as a burden to their family,
• 21% support when the cost of a patient's care is very expensive to the health care. 

The Angus Reid survey found that the majority of Canadians support “assisted death,” but 50% of the respondents wanted significant restrictions on killing or wanted “assisted death” completely prohibited. 

So why are the results of the Ipsos/DWD poll so different?

People who state that they somewhat support euthanasia in an online internet survey, it also means that they also somewhat oppose euthanasia.

For instance the Ipsos/DWD online poll indicated that 86% supported the Supreme Court decision legalizing euthanasia. The data indicated that 50% strongly supported and 36% somewhat supported. That means that 50% want unrestricted access to euthanasia. The major difference being that this poll was intentionally skewed to show greater support for eliminating the "safeguards" in the law.