Video purporting to show street party celebrating Trudeau’s resignation is 3 years old
This video has been misrepresented as showing a scene from January 6, 2025
CLAIM
A number of viral videos circulated on social media claim to show Canadians rejoicing at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation on January 6. One widely shared video shows people dancing in front of a trailer with the text ‘F*ck Trudeau’ written across it.
BACKGROUND
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday, January 6, he would be stepping down as leader of the Liberal Party and would remain in office as prime minister until a successor had been chosen.
A spring election had been almost assured after all three opposition parties had said they would vote against Trudeau in a no-confidence vote when parliament resumed on January 27. Parliament is now suspended until March 24 to allow for a leadership race in the Liberal Party to take place.
Several viral videos circulated on X were described as showing celebrations among the general public over the resignation. Two of these videos, one showing a crowd jumping for a joy in front of a screen appearing to show Trudeau’s resignation broadcast live and another showing people celebrating in a hot tub on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, have been fact-checked and found as manipulated and AI-generated. (See here, here and here) A community note has also been added on X on the video showing the hot tub.
However, another video showing a street party in front of a trailer with the text ‘F*ck Trudeau’ was also described as showing the reaction to the announcement. One post on X sharing the video was reposted over 10,000 times.
METHOD
The versions of this video showing the street party were highly pixelated, suggesting that they had been copied a number of times already.
Photos and videos found on Shutterstock showed the same trailer in the same location in Ottawa on January 30, 2022, at the so-called Freedom Convoy against public health measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A search on YouTube for “freedom convoy January 30” yielded multiple results appearing to show the same street party.
Finally, a video posted on January 31, 2022 and described as shot the previous day contained the cropped clip that had been widely shared on social media in response to Trudeau’s resignation.
RATING
This video has been misrepresented as showing a scene from January 6, 2025 in response to Trudeau’s resignation but was, in fact, shot almost three years earlier.
SOURCES
Beri, V. and Hm, K. (2025) FACT CHECK: Canadians celebrating Justin Trudeau’s resignation? Here’s the truth behind viral videos. [Accessed 8 Jan. 2025].
Dhonge, N.K. and Dhonge, N.K. (2025) A video of football fans celebrating England’s Euro 2016 win is digitally altered and shared as crowd celebrating Justin Trudeau’s resignation. [Accessed 8 Jan. 2025].
FiLiP and DaViD (2022) DANCE FOR FREEDOM CANADA CONVOY 2022 ORANGE SUIT PARLIAMENT OTTAWA 2022 PROTEST BY NIGHT 30 JANUARY, YouTube. [Accessed 8 Jan. 2025].
VerificaRTVE, J.M./ (2025) ‘No es la reacción del pueblo canadiense tras la dimisión de Justin Trudeau, es un vídeo manipulado,‘ RTVE.es. [Accessed 8 Jan. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: Canadians after being liberated from Justin Trudeau [Accessed 8 Jan. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: BREAKING: Canadians are celebrating the news of Justin Trudeau’s resignation by re-creating… [Accessed 8 Jan. 2025].