OTTAWA — A new U.S. study warns Canadians that the photos and video of Justin Trudeau in blackface and brownface are ripe for exploitation by those seeking to spread confusion, division and hate ahead of the Oct. 21 federal election.

Researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center say they are already seeing fake images related to the controversy circulating online, and being shared among prominent U.S. operators who have amplified disinformation in the past.


There’s the real risk of a chilling effect on the Canadian election, the researchers say. Unable to discern real from fake, people will just disengage from politics altogether.

“The result is far fewer voices and much less vibrant and healthy elections — and democracies,” the Technology and Social Change Research Project concludes.


There are a number of aspects of the Trudeau controversy that make it vulnerable to disinformation and its effects, said Jon Penney, one of the lead researchers on the project.

Trudeau’s inability to say with certainty whether more photos or images exist opens up space for hoaxers to just create their own. The fact one of the confirmed images came from an old grainy video motivates people to comb through similarly unclear old files to shame candidates or spread confusion. That conspiracy theories are also circulating about why and how the real images went public in the first place is another factor.