Canadians Judge Bankruptcy Harshly — Until It Hits Close to Home

New national study exposes a generational and gender divide in how Canadians morally assess insolvency — and reveals that abstract judgment softens almost universally when the question becomes personal.

CALGARY, Alberta, May 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadians are spending tomorrow’s earnings today — financing everything from groceries to lifestyles on credit — yet when the system breaks down and insolvency follows, the moral weight falls almost entirely on the individual. A new national study is putting that contradiction to the test.

Commissioned by Licensed Insolvency Trustee Shawn Stack and conducted by the Angus Reid Forum among 1,501 Canadians, the poll finds that roughly four-in-10 Canadians hold firm negative moral views about those who file for bankruptcy — but that those views fracture sharply along generational and gender lines, and dissolve almost entirely the moment insolvency touches someone they know.

This is the first in a two-part series examining how Canadians perceive debt, insolvency, and the financial system. Part One explores the moral lens Canadians apply to individual debtors. Part Two, to be released in late May, will examine how those same Canadians assess the role of lenders, institutions, and the broader economic system in driving financial hardship.

The Empathy Gap
The most striking finding in the survey isn’t how harshly Canadians judge bankruptcy — it’s how quickly that judgment evaporates. 41 per cent of Canadians describe bankruptcy as the result of poor personal choices, and an equal share consider it equivalent to breaking a financial promise. More than a third (37 per cent) go as far as calling those who don’t repay their debts untrustworthy.

Yet when the same Canadians are asked whether they would view a close friend or family member differently if that person filed for bankruptcy, only one in five (23 per cent) say yes. The gap between judging a stranger and judging someone you love is, apparently, nearly thirty percentage points wide.

This is the empathy gap — and it runs through every question in the survey. Canadians hold moral positions in the abstract that they are largely unwilling to apply to real people in their lives.

The Generational Moral Split
If the empathy gap is the survey’s headline contradiction, the generational divide is its most consequential finding. Baby Boomers and Gen Z are separated by more than forty years — and, on the question of bankruptcy, by something closer to a different moral universe.

Nearly half of Boomers (47 per cent) view bankruptcy as a loophole to avoid paying what is owed. Among Gen Z, that number is 21 per cent — less than half. On whether people should face consequences before having debts forgiven, 52 per cent of Boomers agree, compared to just 23 per cent of Gen Z — a gap of nearly thirty percentage points. And while 51 per cent of Boomers equate bankruptcy with a broken financial promise, only 31 per cent of Gen Z feel the same way.

Gen Z’s comparatively forgiving view is not simply youthful naïveté. It reflects a generation that entered adulthood in a high-cost, low-stability economy — one where the relationship between effort, debt, and outcome looks fundamentally different than it did for earlier generations. As Stack puts it: “Instead of labouring today for tomorrow’s rest, we are labouring today for yesterday’s pleasure.” Gen Z appears to understand this intuitively in a way their parents’ and grandparents’ generations do not.

Men More Likely to Moralize Debt
Men are consistently more likely than women to moralize around insolvency. 45 per cent of men say bankruptcy results from poor personal choices, compared to 37 per cent of women. Men are also more likely to call non-payers untrustworthy (43 per cent vs. 32 per cent), and more likely to believe people should face consequences before debt is forgiven (43 per cent vs. 37 per cent).

The gender gap is narrower — but consistent — across every measure of moral judgment in the survey. On the personal question, the gap essentially closes: 24 per cent of men and 22 per cent of women say they would view a close person differently after a bankruptcy filing.

The Punishment Paradox
Of all the statements tested in the survey, only one commands majority agreement across the country: 51 per cent of Canadians say that people who file for bankruptcy should have limited access to borrowing in the future.

The implication is significant. Bankruptcy law exists precisely to allow individuals to discharge unmanageable debt and rebuild. Yet a majority of Canadians favour a consequence that would effectively lock those individuals out of the financial system — limiting the very recovery the law is designed to enable. It is, as Stack notes, a position that suggests the system should punish people for using the system.

At the same time, 44 per cent of Canadians do recognize that using bankruptcy laws to eliminate debt is a legitimate financial decision — a meaningful share, even if it falls short of a majority.

Survey Results: Net Agreement by Demographic

Statement	All Canadians	Men	Women	Gen Z	Millennials	Gen X	Boomers
Bankruptcy = poor personal choices	41 per cent	45 per cent	37 per cent	38 per cent	36 per cent	38 per cent	48 per cent
Bankruptcy = breaking a promise	41 per cent	42 per cent	40 per cent	31 per cent	36 per cent	40 per cent	51 per cent
Non-payers are untrustworthy	37 per cent	43 per cent	32 per cent	38 per cent	39 per cent	32 per cent	39 per cent
Bankruptcy = a loophole	35 per cent	36 per cent	34 per cent	21 per cent	28 per cent	34 per cent	47 per cent
Should face consequences first	40 per cent	43 per cent	37 per cent	23 per cent	34 per cent	37 per cent	52 per cent
Should have limited future borrowing	51 per cent	53 per cent	48 per cent	44 per cent	48 per cent	49 per cent	57 per cent
Bankruptcy is a legitimate decision	44 per cent	46 per cent	41 per cent	40 per cent	48 per cent	41 per cent	42 per cent
Would view a friend or family member differently	23 per cent	24 per cent	22 per cent	27 per cent	23 per cent	19 per cent	24 per cent

Gen Z column highlighted in blue; Boomers in amber. Figures represent net agreement.

“We have built an economy that runs on credit — on using tomorrow’s potential to sustain today’s appearances. And then we shame the people who fall through the cracks of a system we all participate in. The data shows that Canadians know something is off. The generational divide alone tells you the story is changing. But empathy alone isn’t a policy. Until we separate the legal process of insolvency from the moral verdict we’ve attached to it, we will keep punishing people for doing exactly what the law allows them to do.”
— Shawn Stack, Licensed Insolvency Trustee

ABOUT THE STUDY
Debt & Moral Perception in Canada is a two-part national study commissioned by Licensed Insolvency Trustee Shawn Stack from March 27th to March 31st, 2026 among a representative sample of 1,501 online Canadians who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. The survey was conducted in English and French. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/-2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

ABOUT SHAWN STACK
Shawn Stack is a Licensed Insolvency Trustee based in Calgary. He is available for media interviews and commentary on insolvency, consumer debt, and personal finance. Shawn is the author of Beyond Material Salvation – Rethinking Insolvency and Debtor Morality, a framework for understanding how modern credit culture shapes — and strains — the financial lives of ordinary Canadians. He can be reached at https://www.shawnastack.com/

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