AFP Canada

Trudeau is latest target of train robbing uncle hoax

Published on 12 March 2019 at 21:54

Facebook posts featuring a black-and-white photo of a man about to be hanged have been shared several thousand times alongside captions claiming that the person in the photo is Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s great-great-uncle, a train robber and horse thief. The claim is false and the same photo was used in posts tying former PM Stephen Harper, as well as a variety of other politicians, to the outlaw.

No, 'Islamic indoctrination' was not introduced in Canadian public schools

Published on 8 March 2019 at 00:24

A Facebook post claims that Canada’s government “is now introducing Islamic indoctrination into all public schools,” with students reading the Koran and promoting Sharia law. This is false: Canada’s public education is secular and does not teach religious precepts, nor can the federal government impose curriculum as education is a provincial prerogative.

No, Cadbury and Pepsi products were not infected with HIV

Published on 5 March 2019 at 19:06

Reports that a man was arrested for injecting Cadbury or Pepsi products with his own HIV-infected blood have tenaciously permeated social media for several years. The reports are false. The man in the photo is Sadiq Ogwuche, arrested in 2014 for his role in organizing a bombing in Nigeria earlier that year and has no connection to Cadbury or Pepsi. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Public Health Agency of Canada also confirmed that HIV cannot be transmitted via food or beverages.

No, this 'giant' turtle was not beached in Mexico or Brazil

Published on 1 March 2019 at 22:29Updated on 7 March 2019 at 08:58

A video of a large sea turtle dragging itself on a beach towards the sea has been shared hundreds of thousands of times in multiple languages on social media. Several publications assure that the scene was captured in Mexico, another that the event took place in Brazil. Although these images of a leatherback sea turtle are real, they were actually captured on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

Decontextualized ‘yellow vests’ photos

Published on 27 February 2019 at 19:06

Photo posts denouncing police response to France's "yellow vest" protests have been shared nearly 50,000 times in English. Although police abuses have been reported in the past months, only two of the four photos shared depict the recent anti-government protests, while the others predate current president Emmanuel Macron’s election.

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