Canada photo misrepresented as Portland demonstrators taunting immigration agents
- Published on October 10, 2025 at 18:37
- 2 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"Portland Protestors Baiting ICE Agents With Donuts on Fishing Poles Calling it ICE Fishing," says text over the image, shared October 6, 2025 on Facebook.
The photo shows a group of masked protesters dangling doughnuts from makeshift fishing rods in front of a line of law enforcement officers.
Similar posts rocketed across Facebook and other platforms -- including Instagram, Threads and X -- as Trump ramped up his crackdown on illegal immigration and crime by surging federal agents and authorizing the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland and Chicago. The move, which saw the Republican brand Chicago a "war zone," follows similar military campaigns opposed by local leaders in Los Angeles and Washington.
A federal judge in Oregon on October 4 temporarily blocked the Portland troop deployment, leading Trump to threaten October 6 to invoke emergency powers meant to thwart rebellion. The president has claimed the city is "burning to the ground."
Demonstrations against Trump and his mass-deportation policies have occurred regularly across the United States since his return to the White House, with the recent moves sparking renewed protests against ICE.
But the photo spreading online is old and unrelated.
Reverse image searches revealed the photo has circulated on internet forums and blog sites since at least November 2013, though without reference to the original context of the demonstration (archived here, here and here).
The original photo has a wider crop than the version resurfacing online, revealing a small statue on the left side of the frame behind the officers.
Under various posts sharing the picture on Reddit since 2013, commenters wrote that they recognized the location or police uniforms and suggested it was snapped in Toronto, Canada (archived here and here).
Keyword searches for Toronto police-related statues uncovered a similar sculpture outside the Toronto Police Museum & Discovery Centre, located near the city's police headquarters. Google Street View imagery confirms the location (archived here).
Further searches surfaced a Getty Images photo of a different protester similarly taunting law enforcement with a doughnut outside the headquarters in August 2013 (archived here).
The caption says the protests related to the death of Sammy Yatim, who died that year at age 18 when police engaged him for wielding a knife on a streetcar. An officer was later found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to six years in prison for continuing to fire even after Yatim had fallen to the ground.
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about Portland here.
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