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Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a public opinion poll reveals a striking generational divide in what Canadians know about the world’s deadliest terror attacks, how deeply they feel its impact, how much they fear terrorism — and even on the question of whether terrorism can be justified.
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The poll’s findings suggest personal memories of the shock and horror of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks change how people think about terrorism.
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The nationwide poll of Canadian adults, conducted this week by Leger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies and provided to Postmedia, found those under the age of 25 are by far the least likely to say they have good knowledge of the events of 9/11.
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Among all respondents, 71 per cent said they have good knowledge of what happened on 9/11, while 17 per cent said they did not and 11 per cent said they didn’t know if they did or did not.
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In the youngest cohort of adults, those between 18 and 24, only 47 per cent said they have good knowledge of 9/11, with 35 per cent saying they didn’t and 18 per cent saying they didn’t know. By contrast, those in the oldest cohort, aged 65 and up, 81 per cent said they have good knowledge and only 11 per cent said they didn’t. Across the age brackets, professed knowledge escalated with age.
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Age changed how people answered all questions about terrorism.
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“It’s a generational divide that’s really driving a lot of the responses on this subject,” said Jack Jedwab, president of the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies. “Which makes sense, since those in the youngest cohort weren’t born yet at that time (of 9/11).
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“So right out of the proverbial gate that’s going to be an important predictor of how they understand the post-9/11 climate, or the extent to which they think there is a post-9/11 climate, which, in terms of our understanding of the phenomenon of terrorism in this century, that’s the event that has shaped much of the response both in North America and globally.”
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For many around the world old enough, 9/11, as the attacks are collectively known, stands as one of those rare events they remember precisely where they were or what they were doing when they first heard the news.
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As that day unfolded, people learned that 19 terrorists with al-Qaida, a jihadist group, hijacked four U.S. passenger airliners and used them as deadly weapons. Two planes were crashed into iconic skyscrapers in New York, flattening them, one was flown into the Pentagon, the U.S. military’s headquarters, and a fourth crashed in a field before reaching its target, possibly the White House or the United States Capitol building, when passengers tried to take back control of the plane.
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The coordinated attacks killed 2,977 victims. Several times more than that have died since, attributed to exposure to enormous clouds of toxic dust and ash in New York after World Trade Center’s two towers collapsed.