In a recent survey conducted by Forum Research, and “released exclusively” to the Toronto Sun, nearly one in five Torontonians (18 per cent, to be precise) claims to have been a victim of “a violent crime like a gunpoint robbery, assault or mugging.”  This is funny, because I can’t think of anyone off-hand I know who’s been mugged, assaulted, or robbed at gunpoint in Toronto.  Kinda makes you wonder who they were talking to.  Was this survey conducted solely amongst residents of the Jane and Finch area, for instance?

Apparently not.  The Sun states that “Downtown or East York residents (20%) and Scarborough residents (22%) were more likely to say they were victims of a violent crime.”  Okay, so I can see the rates being slightly elevated in Scarborough, but I have lived either downtown or in East York for pretty much all of my seven years in this city (I think The Annex still qualifies as downtown, though I don’t really look at it that way), and I can say that I’ve never even seen a gun, whereas the closest I’ve come to getting my ass kicked would be getting caught in a mosh pit at a metal gig.  And no, I certainly didn’t file assault charges afterwards…

As per the Sun, “The Forum poll of 812 Toronto residents was conducted using interactive voice response phone calls on Thursday and Friday.”  Ah, there’s the rub.  Eight-hundred-and-twelve people in a city of roughly 2.5 million (assuming we’re strictly talking Toronto and not the suburbs) is hardly a representative figure—something like 0.03 per cent.  Are we sure there’s only a 3.44 per cent margin of error on that figure, Forum Research?