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Canada is inundated with American fake news, from Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update to The Onion. But we also create brilliant homegrown fake news that is far more relevant to our day-to-day lives. Here’s some to check out…
This is That is a radio news program that sounds like CBC Radio One’s serious journalism. It aired from 2010-2018, and periodically reappears for special features. Their reports include eyewitness interviews and expert commentary, and use background sounds to add an air of realism.
The realism fools some listeners. A story about the (non-existent) Calgary Aquarium shutting down and holding a public barbecue to get rid of the fish resulted in listeners calling the CBC to condemn the Aquarium. “I think this is absolutely outrageous and disgusting” said one listener, while another said “This is shocking… I just hope it’s a joke.”
The Feather News creates thoughtful yet outrageously funny features that deal with everything from decolonisation’s relationship with white “woke” culture to how Canada’s courts clash with Indigenous sovereignty.
Beginning in 2018 as a blog, The Feather News soon grew into an APTN series. Founder Ryan Moccassin credits the relationship with APTN for helping them navigate sensitive issues with care. A second season is now available on APTN’s lumi platform.
Walking Eagle News is a project by long-time Indigenous journalist Tim Fontaine. Its newswire-type stories range from “White vegan wins major award for suggestion Inuit communities grow beans or something” to “Store employee just gonna go ahead and straighten items on shelf close to where Indigenous person shopping.”
Fontaine credits his site’s success, in part, to how “it’s more about attacking power than it is about attacking the left or the right.” He calls out racism where he sees it, and advises aspiring writers to “Be a writer and tell the truth.”
The Beaverton is a sardonic Canadian fake news site. Since it launched in 2010, its offerings have included a Comedy Network series, a podcast, and a book that satirises Canada’s history.
Editor-in-chief Luke Gordon Field is a lawyer by training. As he explained to Canadaland, Canada’s history of rather strict defamation laws made it more difficult to say untrue things about people, particularly before freedom of expression was enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This past may help explain why our satire has traditionally been more kind and cautious than American satire.
22 Minutes is Canada’s longest-running televised comedy show. Often political, it debuted for Canada’s 1993 federal election. Episodes begin with a fake newscast, then continue with interviews, parody commercials, on-location reports, and critical editorials.
22 Minutes has had several controversial moments, including a 2003 incident where their sports commentator Raj Binder (played by Shaun Majumder) snuck into team photos at an Edmonton Oilers/Montreal Canadiens hockey game. An outraged Oilers official claimed Majumder ruined the photos and called him “a moron.”
Canada is inundated with American fake news, from Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update to The Onion. But we also create brilliant homegrown fake news that is far more relevant to our day-to-day lives.
