Exposed: the web of fake IDs behind Canada's anti-immigration groups
Fake identities push anti-immigration groups’ agenda online and in the real world – and try to ‘befriend’ the SCMP’s reporter on social media
An investigation by the South China Morning Post has uncovered a web of fake identities, bogus social media accounts and misleading email addresses pushing the agenda of two Canadian anti-immigration groups.
The fake identities have conducted a range of public activities to support Immigration Watch Canada (IWC) and Putting Canada First (PCF), both of which say multiculturalism is a failure.
Much of it was seemingly absurd and carried out online: "Mark Champ", a fake identity associated with IWC founder Dan Murray, would engage in social media discussions with Murray and "like" his comments on Immigration Minister Chris Alexander's Facebook page.
But some activity had a real-world impact on others. Recent complaints against an ethnic Chinese realtor in Vancouver, lodged by "S. Torrington", another fake identity, resulted in the realtor being censured by his employer this month. A 2013 letter to a Vancouver newspaper written by "Palawan (sic: Palaan) Tewsmith" - a non-existent IWC supporter who shared an email address with "Torrington" - referred to the "demonising [of] people … born with white pigmentation". The letter is now required reading for the University of British Columbia's history course on Asian migration.
Much of the activity appears designed to create the impression of widespread support for both groups as well as to spread their views. But the purpose of other activity is unclear.
The "Mark Champ" Facebook persona - who was discovered to share an email address with Murray - tried to befriend this Post reporter on September 19, a day after the first details of the investigation were published.