Photo shows riots after 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in Vancouver, Canada -- not in France in 2023

"This is what protests in a developed country (France) look like," reads the Korean-language caption of the image shared on Facebook here on July 2, 2023.

"If you're going to protest, this is how you do it."

The photo shows a shirtless man standing on top of what appears to be a burning vehicle holding up his arms and surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.

The claim was shared as a wave of protests engulfed France after 17-year-old Nahel M, of Algerian origin, was shot dead by police in a suburb of Paris on June 27.

AFP reported some 45,000 police officers and gendarmes were dispatched to quell the unrest across the country, as rioters torched cars, engaged in looting and clashed with police (archived link).

Some 3,900 people have been arrested as of July 3, according to the French justice ministry (archived link).

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on July 3, 2023

The same photo was shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook here and here.

Despite signs on a building in the background that read "Canada Post" in English and in French, comments on the posts suggest many users believed the photo was taken in France.

"They show the kind of spirit with which [the French] guillotined their king," wrote one user.

Another said: "This is what a demonstration truly is, befitting a developed country like France."

But the photo was not taken during the riots in France. In fact, they show a riot in Canada in 2011 after the Stanley Cup Finals.

Stanley Cup riot

A reverse image search on Google led to the same photo being used in an article by Canada's National Post newspaper on June 16, 2011 (archived link).

The article shows a collection of photos taken during a riot in Vancouver after the city's ice hockey team -- the Vancouver Canucks -- were beaten by the Boston Bruins in the finals of that year's Stanley Cup.

The report, titled "Photos: Riots, fire, destruction after Vancouver's loss", includes more than two dozen photos of the riot, with the last photo in the set matching the image being misleadingly shared on Facebook.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared alongside the false claim on Facebook (left) and the image published in the National Post article from June 2011 (right):

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Screenshot comparison between the photo shared alongside the false claim on Facebook (left) and the image published by the National Post (right)

According to a report published by the attorney general of British Columbia in January 2016, the riots began in front of the Canada Post building on West Georgia Street at approximately 7:30 p.m. on June 15, 2011 before spreading through the downtown core of the city as rioters "set vehicles on fire, looted commercial premises, and defiantly confronted the police" (archived link).

Through this description, AFP was able to geolocate the video using Google Street View (archived link).

Below is a comparison of the picture in the misleading post (left) and a screengrab of the street in Canada as seen on Google Street View in 2014 (right).

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Comparison of the picture in the misleading post (left) and a screengrab of the street in Canada as seen on Google Street View in 2014 when the riot in Canada took place (right).

The same photo was also used in other reports about the 2011 riots, including here and here (archived links here and here).