Fact Check

Justin Trudeau: “Clowns Will Be Arrested and Fined $10,000”

The Canadian prime minister isn't threatening to address a "Canadian clown crisis" by throwing clowns in jail and heavily fining them.

Published Oct. 5, 2016

Claim:
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau announced a new law to arrest and fine anyone wearing clown costumes.

In October 2016 fake news sites were making hay publishing fabricated articles that exploited current news coverage of "killer clown" sightings across the United States, and the Global Sun fake news site scored big with a fictional news report about weapons-wielding clowns from the U.S. invading Canada and murdering 23 victims.

The site followed up that report with an equally fake story about Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau's responding to the non-existent Canadian killer clown "crisis" by announcing a new law that would allow for "Any person dressed in a clown costume in public" to be arrested and fined $10,000:

There have been many clown-related killings around the world and including Canada recently. Just yesterday there were a reported 23 Canadians killed by clowns.

Justin Trudeau has taken matter into his own hands to address this situation and find a solution — arrest and fine clowns. Justin Trudeau held a conference on behalf of the Liberal Party to announce the new law that has been passed that states “Any person of any age dressed in a clown costume in public will be arrested and charged $10,000”.

Justin Trudeau believes that this is the best approach to getting rid of these clowns on the street.

In this made-up article, Trudeau exhibited great restraint by not noting that the task of rounding up clowns in Canada should be greatly simplified because they are usually all gathered around a single location in Ottawa:

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David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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