Three-quarters Canadians believe the United States was wrong to have deported Maher Arar to Syria, where he was born, as opposed to Canada, a new poll has found.

Almost one-fifth - 19 per cent - are of the opposite opinion, believing the United States had justification for expelling him to his birth country. About 6 per cent say they don't know.

That is one finding of the latest Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail poll, which looked at a number of terror-related issues.

About 52 per cent of respondents believe our security forces are unnecessarily targeting Arab Canadians because of their race.

Four in 10 respondents do not agree that Canadian forces are practising this type of racial profiling (26 per cent somewhat disagree, 17 per cent strongly disagree).

The poll also found that most Canadians are worried about a terror attack within Canada.

About 62 per cent believe there are international terrorists within Canada who are either just waiting to attack Canadian civilians or are using Canada as a launching pad for attacks on other countries.

Yet most Canadians are confident that a terrorist attack in Canada within the next two years is not imminent. About 72 per cent say they don't expect an attack in Canada in the next two years. But one quarter of respondents do believe an attack is coming.

Residents of Saskatchewan ad Manitoba (35%), are the most likely to believe there will be a terrorist attack within the next two years, with only 21 per cent of Quebecers expecting an attack.

As well, the older the respondents are, the more likely they are to agree that there will be a terrorism attack in the next two years.

The telephone survey was conducted between Feb. 3 and 5, 2004. It's based on a randomly selected sample of 1055 adult Canadians. The results are considered accurate to within ± 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.