A former member of Canada’s parliament is under fire after being accused of trying to defend an Indian man caught defecating at a gas station parking lot. After a shocking photo began circulating online, Former Brampton East MP Raj Grewal falsely claimed it was photoshopped before releasing misleading CCTV footage in an effort to “debunk” the claim.
The shocking photo was first shared Monday by True North journalist Harrison Faulkner, who used it to comment on the state of Canadian mass immigration from India. In the image, an elderly Sikh man can be seen squatting near a gas pump with his shorts down.
Although Grewal, who claims to own the property where the alleged bowel movement occurred, accused Faulker of digitally manipulating the photo, several users on X were able to debunk his claims.
Sharing a zoomed-in version of the photo featuring the man’s reflection in the hood of his car, an X user who goes by the moniker Anti-Taxxer responded that only a highly skilled Photoshop user could have manipulated the image with such intense detail.
“Did Industrial Light and Magic do this work? Look at the reflection. This is Hollywood quality artistry.”
Additional evidence validating the photo as authentic quickly popped up, including the extended Live Photo, a gif-like 1.5 second video made by Apple phones that capture the moments just before and after a photo is taken.
“Here’s the live video proof everyone is taking the second picture I sent as proof he isn’t but there stupid obviously a second photo from another angle,” wrote the self-proclaimed “poopgate exposer.”
Others ran the original image through forensic analysis, which demonstrated that no obvious manipulation was done to the photo.
In response to the evidence, the former Liberal MP, who resigned from caucus in 2018 after police launched an investigation into his gambling debts, doubled down, sharing security footage of the parking lot.
“The elder man was not defecating in the open. He’s clearly wearing pants, not shorts – contrary to the photo that was initially shared. The racism and hate that’s been spread about this incident is disappointing and alarming. Out of respect for the senior citizen involved we are not providing any further comment on this,” Grewal said.
But despite his efforts, people were quick to point out that the CCTV footage Grewal shared appears to be from a different day, and includes a vehicle of a different make than the one seen in the viral photo.
Disturbingly, this is not the first time a newcomer has been caught defecating in public. Yesterday, an additional video began circulating online of a man pooping on a front lawn in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
As previously reported by The Publica, a Canadian woman was recently accused of being racist for expressing her concerns about South Asians burying their feces in the sand at Wasaga Beach in Ontario.
Although her videos have since been deleted, she explained that her former residence backed onto one of the beach areas of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park and that she had seen Indian families “digging holes in the sand to defecate” during their visits.
“They did it off my back yard. There were three different families of maybe 25, 30 people that came for barbecues who would set up right on the fence of my back yard. I saw them digging the hole. I saw them placing a tent [over the hole]. When they left, there was poop,” describes @itsnattylxnn2.0 in a video.
“I have had to yell at people for shitting on the border of my property line. And yes, it was Indian families.”
