Majority of Canadians not confident in Canada's security services ability to stop acts of terror: poll

What a difference a week makes.

Canadians now rank terrorism as the world’s most serious threat, according to a new poll released by Angus Reid, on Friday.

The survey — conducted the same week as the deadly attacks in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa — has 50 per cent of Canadians ranking terrorism and ISIS over other international concerns such as the Ebola outbreak, Russian aggression, climate change and the global economy.

Q: Which of the following international issues do you yourself consider to be the most serious threats for the world today?

Another interesting finding of the survey is that the majority of Canadians don’t have a lot of confidence in the RCMP, CSIS or local police “to prevent homegrown radicals from carrying out terrorist attacks in Canada.”

"Slightly more than half (55 per cent) of respondents say they aren’t
confident, with 41 (per cent) saying they’re ‘not very confident’ and 14 per cent saying they’re ‘not confident at all,’” notes the survey report.

"By contrast, two-in-five (40 per cent) profess confidence in security services, with 36 per cent saying ‘confident’ and 4 per cent saying ‘very confident’"

[ Related: Is it time to invoke the War Measures Act? Not so fast, say experts ]

The findings probably shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

The events of this week have shown that security forces in Canada face a difficult battle against homegrown terrorist acts — especially ’lone wolf’ attacks.

Public safety officials have confirmed that there are approximately 130 Canadians that have gone abroad to fight with terrorist organizations and at least 80 have returned to Canada.

The RCMP are monitoring about 90 people suspected of being involved with extremism-related activities, and authorities have revoked the passports of several individuals — including that of Martin (Ahmad) Couture-Rouleau’s, the radicalized 25-year old man who ran down two soldiers in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, killing Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent.

But CBC News has learned that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau — the man involved in the Ottawa shootings — wasn’t even one of the people the RCMP had under surveillance.

[ Related: Ottawa shooting: Harper government wants to make terror arrests easier ]

There are indications, however, that the Harper government will move quickly to give law enforcement new terrorism-fighting powers to keep Canadians safe.

According to CBC News, the government is exploring options to preempt terrorist activities by lowering thresholds for preventative arrests.

"The challenges are the thresholds — the thresholds that will allow either preventive arrest, or charges that lead to sentences, or more simple operations," Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney told Radio Canada.

"So what the prime minister has asked is for us to review in accelerated manner the different mechanisms that are offered to police to ensure everyone’s security."

One of the specific things that the government is looking at, according to the National Post, is “new legislation that would make it an offence to condone terrorist acts online.”

"Sources suggest the government is likely to bring in new hate speech legislation that would make it illegal to claim terrorist acts are justified online," notes the Post report.

While such measures may quell some fears, relaxing arrest thresholds, any move to relax arrest thresholds are sure to be controversial.

"Democratic countries, such as Canada, operate under the rule of law, Simon Fraser University political science professor Stuart Farson told Yahoo Canada News.

"This provides protections for individuals against arbitrary arrest and detention. In addition, Canada has a written constitution that protects certain rights and freedoms. One of these covers freedom of speech."

Are you a politics junkie?
Follow @politicalpoints on Twitter!