Respondents’ feelings about fighting for Ukraine were not as strong as their feelings about fighting for the United States or Israel.
Nearly half of Canadians, according to a poll commissioned by The Maple, think it should be illegal for Canadian citizens to enlist in Ukraine’s military.
Compared to Ukraine, respondents expressed stronger opposition to Canadians serving in the militaries of the United States and Israel. More than half of those surveyed believed military service in those countries should be prohibited.
Overall, 47 per cent supported banning Canadians from joining any foreign military, while 30 per cent opposed this idea and 23 per cent were uncertain.
Specifically regarding Ukraine, 37 per cent disagreed with banning service there, and 19 per cent were unsure. Significantly more Canadians opposed restrictions on fighting for Ukraine compared to the U.S. and Israeli forces.
The Maple’s survey was carried out online by Pollara Strategic Insights from March 27 to 30, with a sample of 1,546 randomly selected adults.
Ivan Katchanovski, a part-time political studies professor at the University of Ottawa and author of The Russia-Ukraine War and its Origins: From the Maidan to the Ukraine War, explained that the lower opposition to fighting for Ukraine reflects that the conflict is not merely a Russo-Ukrainian war but also a proxy battle between NATO and Russia.
“For this reason, you have very heavy involvement of Western countries, of Canada, in this fighting, this proxy war, in the form of providing military support, weapons, intelligence, information, money, financing of Ukrainian budget and so on,” he said.
Following the outbreak of war in 2022, the National Post reported that over 550 Canadians traveled to join Ukraine’s forces. The international legion even created a battalion specifically for Canadian volunteers.
However, Canadian enthusiasm and backing for the conflict have waned since then.
An Angus Reid poll conducted in 2024 noted that 45 per cent of Canadians followed the war closely, a decline from 66 per cent in 2022. Those who felt Canada was over-involved in aiding Ukraine rose to 25 per cent from 13 per cent in May 2022.
Katchanovski attributed Canadians’ perceptions to a “Hollywood Western” portrayal of the war, which misrepresents reality and is reinforced by mainstream media and politicians. He pointed out that many journalists and media outlets covering Ukraine have neither been there nor speak the language.
“Western media takes at face value and promotes propaganda by the Zelensky government that Ukraine is winning the war, that Ukrainian military casualties are far lower than Russian casualties, that Azov corps are regular military formations, and that Ukraine is a democracy,” Katchanovski told The Maple in an email.
“In fact, the evidence shows that Ukraine faces a partial defeat, that Ukrainian military casualties are similar to combined Russian and Donbas separatists military casualties, that Azov corps are neo-Nazi-led, and that Ukraine is ruled by a [dictator], who usurped power and cancelled the presidential elections.”
The Ottawa Citizen reported recently that an Azov non-commissioned officer received training in Canada earlier this year. In 2025, The Maple revealed the Canadian embassy in Kyiv hosted Azov members for what was described by an Azov contact as a “friendly and open dialogue.”
Ukrainians Lack Some Basic Rights
Early conflict analyses by The Maple found very few opposing viewpoints in major Canadian newspapers, with 96 per cent of editorials backing Canada’s support for Ukraine’s war effort.
Katchanovski remarked that this strong media support aligns with Ukrainian government propaganda rather than balanced coverage.
“Canadian government and the media and a lot of self-proclaimed supporters of Ukraine actually support policies which would be totally unacceptable in Canada. But they support them in Ukraine.”
For instance, a Ukrainian government ministry registers media organizations and sets professionals’ standards.
Prior to Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Ukraine mandated all print media publish exclusively in Ukrainian, a policy raising concerns among human rights groups over the suppression of minority languages.
In 2021 and 2022, the Ukrainian government shut down some TV stations and merged others into a single state broadcaster.
“I think we were switched off because there was a fear that this time, we would not support the president’s point of view,” Volodymyr Mzhelskyi, a Ukrainian TV director, told NPR in July 2022.
There have also been reports of Ukrainian men being kidnapped and forced into military service by conscription officers.
Katchanovski shared that the Ukrainian government has banned his book.
“Canada could have helped Ukraine by making time to make Ukraine more like Canada,” Katchanovski said, “a democracy in which you have language rights, you have freedom of expression and so on. But this is not the case.”
Via Pollara: “From March 27 to March 30, 2026, Pollara Strategic Insights conducted an online survey of a randomly- selected sample of N=1,546 adult (18+) Canadians. The dataset has been weighted according to the most current gender, age, and regional Census data, to ensure the sample reflects the actual population of adult Canadians. Online surveys do not permit the application of a margin of error. A probability sample of N=1,546 carries a margin of error of ±2.5%, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error is larger for sub-segments. Pollara Strategic Insights is a member of the Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC), and this research was conducted in compliance with CRIC standards.”
Original article: readthemaple.com
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