Justin Trudeau's Brother Wasn't Arrested for Sexual Misconduct With a Minor
The Claim
Alexandre Trudeau, the brother of Justin Trudeau, was arrested for sexual misconduct with a minor, possession of child pornography, and a small quantity of crystal meth.
News posted on
Emerging story
A now-deleted story was posted on the Canadian website Conservative Beaver on August 25th with the headline “Justin Trudeau’s brother arrested on charges of sexual conduct with a minor.” Shortly after, the story went viral across Facebook and Twitter.
Misbar’s Analysis
The original source for this story, Conservative Beaver, has spread quite a few fake news articles in the past. We have already fact-checked several of its false claims about arrests, including the arrest of Barack Obama, Pope Francis, and George Soros. Just like these previous stories, the article about Alexandre Trudeau’s arrest is also fake.
A search of recent news articles yielded no results about the arrest and the original story was deleted from the Conservative Beaver website shortly after it was published. The Agence France-Presse (AFP) contacted the Montreal police service (SPVM) regarding the arrest claim. A spokeswoman for the SPVM told the AFP that “the SPVM has no record of the individual in question.”
Alexandre Trudeau is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, and author of the book Barbarian Lost: Travels in the New China. He is also the son of the four-term Canadian prime minister, Pierre Trudeau. His brother, current Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, is up for election on September 20th against Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole.
