Is the Canadian government putting up signs warning Indians not to defecate in public? Know the truth

The viral image has been digitally altered. It belongs to UNICEF’s campaign in Ghana, Africa. Not linked to the Indians residing in Canada.

A billboard depicting a person defecating in public is making the rounds, with the claim that Canadian authorities have issued these advertisements in Hindi for Indian residents.

The caption states, “Municipalities across Canadian cities with high Indian population have put posters in Hindi across the park and beaches asking Indians not to defecate in the open. It is normal in India as Millions of them still don’t have the facility of a washroom and they defecate in the open”.

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Fact Check- 

By conducting a reverse image search on the viral image, we discovered the original version of the billboard on the stock image website Shutterstock. The caption of the photo states that it was taken in May 2018 in Accra, Ghana, Africa.

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The only differences we discovered between the Shutterstock image and the viral one were that the man’s face appeared to have been digitally altered, and the text “Gyae Ennfatawo” had been replaced with the Hindi version of “stop open defecation”. This makes it clear that the original billboard from Ghana has been edited to match the false claim.

Upon further search we found media reports published in 2018 that contained the original Shutterstock image. According to the BusinessGhana, these billboards were part of a public health sanitation project funded by Canada and the United Nations. The article was titled “Canadian diplomats concerned about funding open defecation campaign in Ghana.” It also mentions that “Canadian diplomats felt the need to justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a campaign aimed at reining in outdoor defecation in Ghana amid questions over the use of development money, internal documents reveal.” On the billboard, a logo of the Government of Canada can be seen at the bottom alongside the logos of the Ghanaian government and UNICEF. Canada has been working with UNICEF since 2012 to eradicate open defecation in the African country.

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Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral image to be False. The viral image has been digitally altered. It belongs to UNICEF’s campaign in Ghana, Africa. Not linked to the Indians residing in Canada.