Videos misidentify dancer as person arrested in Canada fentanyl case

"This is one of four individuals arrested by the RCMP carrying enough fentanyl to kill 10% of the Canadian population," claims the caption of a February 1, 2025 Facebook video with more than 50,000 views.

The clip shows a man dancing at what appears to be Banff National Park in the western Canadian province of Alberta. The text accompanying the video goes on to claim it shows 28-year-old Kunwardeep Singh of Calgary, who was recently charged by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with drug trafficking in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

Other posts accusing the dancer of involvement in criminal activity spread across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X, sometimes making comments about Canadian immigration policies supposedly bringing an Indian drug crisis into the North American country.

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Screenshot of a Facebook post taken February 3, 2025

Polls and analysts report that broad, longstanding Canadian support for immigration has started to weaken, and AFP has previously fact-checked false claims misrepresenting videos of new arrivals to Canada.

The claims linking the man dancing in Banff to a criminal case are incorrect.

Bhangra dance group

Keyword searches unearth a January 30 RCMP press statement describing the arrest and charging of 28-year-old Kunwardeep Singh after the discovery of eight kilograms of fentanyl hidden under the spare tire during a traffic stop near Swift Current (archived here).

A reverse image search reveals the video (archived here) was originally posted to Facebook in 2021 by the Halifax-based Maritime Bhangra Group, which performs the Punjabi folk dances across Canada to raise money for charity.

A website for a documentary about the group lists one of their members as Kunwardeep Singh (archived here) -- the same name as the person mentioned in the Saskatchewan fentanyl case. However, a February 1, 2025 Facebook post from the Maritime Bhangra Group says its member seen in the video is not the same person as the accused in the drug stop (archived here).

"This is completely untrue and he has no connection to this person or any illegal activity," the post says.

AFP contacted the Kunwardeep Singh affiliated with the dance group, who shared a document showing that he is 34 years old and not 28 -- the age of the accused in the RCMP case. The RCMP statement also says the person who was charged lived in Calgary, Alberta, while the older Singh shared an Ontario identification card and said that is where he resides.

Singh said he was out to breakfast with his family when he started to receive distressing messages about the claims that he was supposedly involved in criminal activity. While people close to him are now responding to posts to correct the record, Singh said he still felt hesitant to go outside and was concerned about how the claims would impact his professional reputation.

"You shouldn't be claiming someone else to be the same guy and put them on trial on social media," Singh said. "That's very bad and that shouldn't happen on social media platforms."

Police have not yet released booking photos for the suspects, however, Keely Grasser, a spokeswoman for the Saskatchewan RCMP, told AFP that officers did not think the man seen dancing was the person they charged in the drug case.

"We can't say with 100 percent certainty but -- speaking with investigators -- after reviewing the video they do not believe it to be the same person," Grasser said.

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.