American Outlets Reporting On A Pro-Trump Rally In Canada Were Very Wrong

The Parliamentary Protective Service said there were 300 to 400 participants.

US conservative outlets reporting on a pro-Trump, anti-Trudeau march in Ottawa over the weekend grossly exaggerated the size of the protest.

Daily Caller

The Daily Caller reported that the "Million Canadian March" drew close to 5,000 participants to Parliament Hill in support of President Donald Trump's policies and against those of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Signs visible at the rally included messages denouncing Trudeau, Islam, and "globalists." Members of the anti-immigrant group Soldiers of Odin and the Jewish Defence League were also in attendance, as they have been at right-wing protests across the country.

Protest organizer Mike Waine told the Daily Caller that Canadians don't realize how badly the Trudeau government is damaging the country "because fake news is telling them stories that just aren’t true."

Incidentally, the Daily Caller story was wrong about the size of the crowd.

According to police, the crowd was much smaller than 5,000. The Parliamentary Protective Service told BuzzFeed Canada that "between 300 and 400 people" attended the protest.

NorthPollTV/YouTube / Via youtube.com

An Ottawa police spokesperson told iPolitics that "less than 100" were likely there.

Videos taken of the protest appear to confirm those smaller estimates.

A GoFundMe page for the march described the Million Canadian March as a two-day event. It raised $5,900 of its $1-million goal.

According to a Facebook event page, 504 people marked themselves as attending.

Organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed Canada.

Breitbart repeated the false crowd size estimate in a report that also included false claims about the anti-Islamophobia motion M-103.

Breitbart

According to Breitbart, some of the marchers "were protesting the impending passage of M-103, a new law that would make criticism of Islam a criminal offense in Canada."

In fact, M-103 has already passed. It is also not a law, but a parliamentary motion that called for further study of discrimination and racism.

As of Monday afternoon, it is not illegal to criticize Islam in Canada.