Video shows Spain rally, not anti-Trudeau demonstration
Trudeau #Trudeau
Social media posts sharing footage of a massive rally at a public plaza say it shows a February 18, 2023 protest in Ottawa against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This is false; the video was taken earlier in the month at a demonstration in the Spanish capital Madrid.
“Drone footage from the TRUDEAU MUST GO protests outside of CTV/POS News in Ottawa,” says a February 18, 2023 tweet, claiming it shows a rally marking one year since police removed supporters of the self-styled “Freedom Convoy” who had spent weeks occupying the Canadian capital.
The video of a square packed with people was shared multiple times on Twitter in response to tweets about a rally in Ottawa on the same day. It circulated with the same caption on Facebook the following day.
The posts come after a public inquiry into the Canadian government’s handling of the 2022 protests found Trudeau’s cabinet was justified in using the Emergencies Act to dislodge the demonstrators.
“Invocation of the Emergencies Act is a drastic move, but it is not a dictatorial one,” said Justice Paul Rouleau, who led the review, in a 2,092-page report released February 17.
Rouleau told a news conference that the “invocation of the act was appropriate,” adding that the “very high threshold required for invocation of the act was met.”
“Freedom Convoy” supporters protested the decision in Ottawa on February 18. But photos from local media outlets do not show crowds as large as those seen in the footage shared online — and George Street, where CTV is located, does not feature the fountain shown in the video.
Protest in Spain
Reverse image searches and context clues — including the Spanish flag in the foreground of the video — reveal the clip was filmed in the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid, Spain, a common location for protests.
The same footage was shared February 12, 2023 on Twitter as an estimated 250,000 people gathered to demonstrate in defense of public healthcare.
In the video, two satellite vans are parked in the crowd near the fountain. The same vehicles appear in a picture that Spanish newspaper El Pais published February 12, as well as an image taken by AFP photographer Pierre-Philippe Marcou.
Read more of AFP’s fact checks from Canada here.