A wild conspiracy theory burned up social media in North Bay, Ontario last week thanks to a Dash-8 and a CRJ parked innocently on the ramp outside Voyageur Airways at Jack Garland Airport. Someone posted a Tik Tok video of one of the aircraft, which Voyageur’s parent company Chorus Aviation leases to the United Nations in Amman, Jordan. The Tik Tokker speculated the aircraft had flown in U.N. troops to back up police addressing the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that took over downtown Ottawa and several border crossings earlier this month. They were actually in North Bay for a C check. “I can confirm that the aircraft has been in North Bay for several weeks for a routine aircraft maintenance heavy check event at our Voyageur North Bay facility,” said Melchior Schori, spokesperson for Chorus Aviation Inc.
“It just goes to shows how quickly one video can go viral with misinformation,” said North Bay Deputy Mayor Tanya Vrebosch. “People are anxious and misinformation adds to the conspiracy theories, it adds to people’s fears and the unknown.”