Conservative press release on Trudeau’s teaching job amplified fake news, analysis shows

NOTE: (March 31, 2020) This story was originally published on October 18, 2019. 

A Conservative press release about Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s teaching career amplified unfounded claims on fake news sites that he was fired for sexual misconduct, an analysis shows.

On October 7, the day of the English leaders’ debate, the Conservatives issued a press release asking why Trudeau had left West Point Grey Academy, a Vancouver private school, asserting that different accounts had been raised at different times, by Trudeau and others.

“Why did Justin Trudeau leave West Point Grey Academy,?” the release asked. “What’s the real reason? Why has his story changed so many times, and if the above reports are incorrect, why hasn’t Trudeau corrected the record?”

Before October 7, the rumour about Trudeau was repeated several times on blogs and social media., but had a relatively low profile.

The question wasn’t raised at the debate.

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However, an analysis by the Dublin-based news intelligence company Storyful shows that the meme was amplified after the Conservative statement was released, with a 58 per cent increase in mentions of the supposed scandal on seven social platforms it studied. The platforms included 4chan, Gab, Reddit, Twitter and Youtube. Storyful’s analysis looked at the appearance of related search terms. (trudeau or justintrudeau or “justin trudeau“) and (underage or “west point” or teenager), comparing the period Sept. 29-Oct. 7 to the period Oct. 7-Oct. 15.  

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Several were in the Buffalo Chronicle, a site which is not related to a real newspaper and which was recently suspended from Twitter. It relies heavily on unnamed sources for stories about Canadian politics that cannot be duplicated elsewhere.

Along with the Chronicle, the meme was repeated in some form over the next few days on three other sites after the Conservative statement was released: True North, Zero Hedge and Israel National News.

A few hours after the Conservative press release the Buffalo Chronicle claimed that Trudeau was in legal negotiations with a former student at the school for her to sign a non-disclosure agreement. On October 10, the Buffalo Chronicle claimed that the agreement had been signed, for $2.25 million.

Also on October 10, True North claimed that a passage in the school’s yearbook must be a reference to the supposed scandal.

There is no basis to these claims but these four sources received more than 20,000 interactions across Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Instagram, Storyful said. 

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The Buffalo Chronicle did not respond to a request for comment.

“I think (the Conservatives) should have been more careful about this, because it could have some blowback – it could reflect badly on them,” says Simon Fraser University professor Ahmed Al-Rawi.

“(The party) does have a responsibility, because they are aware that this is not a real story.”

A site at the domain name westpointgreyacademyscandal.ca was registered on October 7 a few hours after the Conservative statement, but had no content on Friday and appears never to have had any content.

Canadaland reported the site was originally registered by the Conservative party, though it no longer was. The Conservatives did not respond to a question from Global News about whether this was true.

On October 4, Clive Austin, headmaster of the school at the time Trudeau taught there, released a statement saying that ” …. with complete certainty that there is no truth to any speculation that he was dismissed.”

Trudeau left the school at the end of the 2000-01 academic year.

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Global News asked the Conservative party about the role the October 7 press release played in amplifying false narratives. They did not answer directly.

“Much like during the SNC-Lavalin corruption scandal, Justin Trudeau’s story about his departure from West Point Grey Academy keeps changing,” Conservative spokesperson Simon Jefferies wrote in an e-mail. “We were simply asking why Justin Trudeau’s story keep changing.”

On October 8, the day after the debate, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer told reporters the press release was about giving Trudeau a chance to “come clean with Canadians.”

“Well on that, like the SNC Lavalin scandal, his story has changed multiple times, and we believe that he might have used that opportunity to come clean with Canadians,” he said. “We’re not making any insinuations — we’re just asking why he can’t keep the story straight.”

Asked during the campaign by the Globe and Mail about the end of his career at the school, Trudeau said that he had ” … moved on, and I have great memories of an excellent time teaching in Vancouver in public and private schools.”

At a press conference on October 10, Trudeau said that he had not secured non-disclosure agreements from anyone about inappropriate sexual personal conduct, and had not acted inappropriately during his time at the school.