An anonymous left-wing Twitter account which claimed that two paid actors pretended to be ordinary Canadians in photos with Andrew Scheer has been forced to apologize after the claim was proven untrue.
The Twitter page “Alberta Resistance” posted on Sunday that two actors had been hired for a photoshoot with the Conservative leader. The advertisement showed Scheer shaking hands with a man and talking to a woman who was a cancer survivor.
Alberta Resistance also claimed that these “actors” were Montreal actor Adina Katz and her brother Avi Katz, posting photos and the Twitter handle of the two in an attempt to out them.
These tweets garnered hundreds of likes and retweets in only a few hours, with notable figures such as radio host Charles Adler and the husband of Liberal strategist Katie Telford spreading the misinformation.
Late Monday night, however, it was apparent that Alberta Resistance’s claims were false.
Adina and Avi Katz both took to Twitter to deny they were the ones in the photos with Andrew Scheer, calling out Alberta Resistance for making these claims without hard evidence.
A comparison of Adina and the woman in the advertisement posted by Avi show that while they look similar, they are clearly not the same person.
The Tweets by Alberta Resistance have since been deleted.
Alberta Resistance (@ResistanceAB) is a far-left Twitter account which associates itself with the Liberal Party of Canada. It appears to be run by only one person and has close to 500 followers.
Alberta Resistance on Monday posted a long apology to Adina, promising to do a better job doing research and fact-checking in the future.
“We should respect and apologize if she wasn’t truly involved with this,” they said.
“Again, Adina, I sincerely apologize for contributing to this whole mess.”
The Liberal party has made “fighting misinformation” central to their platform, but high-profile Liberals are showing their own inability to discern between real and fake news.
