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Fact File: Claims about fraudulent results in Alberta referendum false, expert says
Fact File: No evidence of referendum vote dump
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amanda May Erickson
Posts questioning the results in Alberta's referendum spread on the social media platform X this week as the numbers were released. One claimed that hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots were dumped to answer just one of the questions put to voters — the 10th question asking about independence. Another concluded more people had voted than the number of registered voters. Elections Alberta and one expert say the people making these claims either misunderstood or deliberately misrepresented the vote-counting process.
THE CLAIM
An Oct. 20 post on X alleged that hundreds of thousands of special ballots were dumped to tilt the outcome of the independence referendum question in favour of Alberta remaining in Canada.
“Look at the dump of mail in votes for the Alberta Referendum. Almost all ... the mail in ballots appear to only have answered question 10," it said, posting screenshots of live preliminary results for each referendum question from the Elections Alberta site. The figures in the screenshot showed substantially more votes tallied for the independence question than for the others.
"That smells of corruption," the post, which had received close to 67,000 views hours it was posted, continued.
THE FACTS
Duane Bratt, a professor of political science at Mount Royal University in Calgary, described the claim about a mail-in ballot dump as "ridiculous."
He said the sudden appearance of the results for the independence question after the polls closed was expected, as the government had said results for that question would be announced first, and workers had begun counting the ballots hours before polls closed.
"They had been counting the advanced polls and the mail-in votes since 5 o'clock that afternoon, so it's not surprising that there was a whole bunch of results, the moment that they could officially release them," Bratt said.
Bratt referred to Elections Alberta releasing the initial results for the question minutes after the last poll closed, with the results showing a sizable lead for Alberta remaining in Canada over the option of a referendum on leaving the country.
Soon afterwards, the results for the remaining questions also began to trickle out.
In an emailed statement Tuesday from Elections Alberta, the office said that there was no mail-in ballot dump, and that they had announced the order in which results would be released on May 29.
The office added that it received 519,082 special ballots on the independence question. The Elections Alberta live results web page on Wednesday showed 2,021,521 total votes cast for this question, with 95 per cent of locations reporting.
"This allegation now is disinformation at best and an attempt to deliberately undermine faith in the democratic process at worst," an Elections Alberta spokesperson said.
Bratt added that, while the polling stations workers were counting the ballots for the independence question, they would also count the ballots for the remaining questions.
"In each polling station, they counted Question 10 first, then they went through one to nine. That is why there was a discrepancy, and there continues to be a discrepancy in the totals that emerged," he said in an interview Tuesday.
Bratt added that another reason for the discrepancy was that some voters may have found the wording of the remaining questions confusing and skipped them, and others were encouraged to vote only on the independence question. Voters were free to answer as many referendum question as they chose.
"If you were to vote in person, you don't have to take all 10, you don't have to drop off all 10. It's the same thing with the special ballots," he said. "You could submit one ballot or you could submit 10 ballots."
THE CLAIM
Another Oct. 20 post on X questioned the number of votes processed compared to the number of eligible voters, appearing to equate each valid vote cast with a voter and alleging there might be an "election fraud."
"Elections Alberta noted in advance that the province had 3,148,343 eligible voters," the post said. "The problem is that the numbers below add up to 4,352,679 votes cast."
The post, which received more than 190,000 views in the hours after it appeared, claimed there were 1.2 million more votes than eligible voters, adding that it was hard to believe 100 per cent of eligible voters took part in the referendum.
THE FACTS
Elections Alberta's referendum results website provides a clear distinction between the number of eligible voters and the number of votes cast.
The vote total represents "valid votes cast across 10 questions," in which each ballot submitted counts as one vote. For this referendum, each voter received 10 ballots, one for each question, so in theory the maximum number of votes cast is 10 times the number of voters.
The official results for all 10 questions are expected to be released and finalized on Oct. 29, according to the web page.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.
By Timon Johnson | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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U.S. embassy accuses Canadian politicians of interfering in American elections
U.S. embassy accuses Canada of election meddling
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Keito Newman
The U.S. embassy in Canada has released a list of quotes from Canadian politicians which it says indicate "plans to influence American politics."
Industry Minister Melanie Joly is quoted five times in the list the embassy released today.
It includes context-free quotes from Joly about pressuring American businesses and targeting U.S. states, which addressed Canada's response to American-imposed tariffs.
In a news conference on Parliament Hill today, Prime Minister Mark Carney didn't directly address the accusations but pointed out that the United States initiated trade actions against Canada.
He said everything Canada has done since has been in the interests of Canadian workers and families.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who is also quoted in the U.S. embassy document, said he has no interest in interfering in American elections.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.
By The Canadian Press | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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RCMP raids Lion Electric headquarters in connection with investment fraud case
RCMP raids Lion Electric headquarters
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
The RCMP says it raided electric bus maker Lion Electric's headquarters north of Montreal on Wednesday morning in connection with an investment fraud case.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Martina Pillarova says dozens of officers are scouring the premises in Saint-Jérôme, Que., in a search that could last several days, but that no charges or arrests are expected at the moment.
She says police received complaints from more than a hundred investors and launched an investigation in February 2025.
Pillarova says the operation relates to the company's past activities, with no connection to its new owner.
Quebec's financial regulator said last week it was imposing a $1.1-million penalty on Claude Roy, an investor with ties to Lion, after he admitted to selling company shares in the six weeks before it went into bankruptcy protection in December 2024, avoiding nearly $800,000 in losses.
Lion began to churn out hundreds of electric school buses per year as well as some battery-powered trucks after going public in 2021, but it struggled to scale up further and wound up selling in 2025 for a fraction of its former value, with the Quebec government losing its $140-million investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2026.
Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Une mauvaise blague de Kevin sur les corps de Marjorie et Cintia mal perçue par le public
Lors de l'épisode du dimanche 15 novembre, un commentaire de Kevin d'Occupation Double a grandement fait réagir le public.
Après avoir appris que les deux femmes allaient continuer l'aventure ensemble, alors que Marjorie était en couple avec Kiari et que Cintia s'affichait avec Kevin, celui-ci a partagé une réflexion avec les gars de la maison.
La sélection de l'éditeur : Camille et Martine parlent de consommation d'alcool à OD et ce n'est pas comme on le pense
Pour parler de ce revirement émotif, Kevin a révélé à Jamie et Vincent qu'il avait pensé à un « call », qui a bien fait rire ses colocataires.
Kevin Lapierre
Si ce message se voulait humoristique, plusieurs fans d'OD ne l'ont pas reçu ainsi.
S'il avait quelque chose à dire sur la relation des candidates, certains internautes trouvent que de faire le lien entre leurs actions et leurs corps est un problème qui ne se limite pas à OD.
Lors du même extrait montré à l'émission, Kevin parle aussi de l'orientation sexuelle de Cintia, en disant que c'est au retour de son voyage qu'elle est devenue pansexuelle.
Ce qui a aussi fait réagir.
Ayant déjà perdu sa place comme choix du public selon d'anciens supporteurs du pouvoir de la moustache, ce commentaire que certains qualifient de « body shaming » n'a pas rehaussé sa cote de popularité.
Kevin s'est donc mis dans une position peu favorable aux yeux des téléspectateurs, qui se demandent si les commentaires sur le physique et l'orientation sexuelle des gens devraient encore être abordés d'une telle manière en 2020.