A screenshot of a purported news report is going viral on social media, which alleges that human faeces were found near the statue of a Hindu God in Brampton, Canada.
What's the backdrop?: This comes amid strained relations between the two countries.
In September this year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of being involved in the killing of pro-Khalistani Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
However, India has denied this allegation.
An archive can be seen here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
How did we find out the truth?: Some of the claims showed the name of the publication as Toronto Sun. So we performed a relevant keyword search but did not find the same news report.
However, we came across another headline with the same image of Hanuman, a Hindu deity, the same byline, picture credits and the same publishing date.
This article was posted by a Canadian news portal, Toronto Sun, on 15 December, and the headline read, "Massive statue of Hindu god being built in Brampton".
Only the headline and the introduction of the story did not match.
An archive of the story can be seen here.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
What does the original report say?: According to this report, a 55-foot-tall statue of the Hindu deity Hanuman is being constructed in Brampton which will be completed by 2024.
This statue is said to be Canada’s largest statue of a Hindu god but is yet to be officially inaugurated.
It is crafted by an Indian sculptor, Naresh Kumawat.
Other Indian news outlets like The Indian Express and Hindustan Times also published about this statue.
On checking the archival pages of the same report, no other edits were noticed.
Response from the editor and the reporter: We reached out to the reporter, Denette Wilford, who dismissed the viral claim and clarified that the original article's headline reads, "Massive statue of Hindu god being built in Brampton".
Adrienne Batra, Editor-in-Chief of the Toronto Sun, also refuted the claims.
“There is an appalling edited version of this article circulating online. It is a disturbing trend where online users edit content they disagree with, making it appear as original work from trusted media outlets," she added.
Conclusion: An altered screenshot of a report about a statue of a Hindu deity in Brampton, Canada, is going viral with false claims.
(Editor's Note: The story has been updated to include the response from the Editor-in-Chief of the Toronto Sun.)
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