Conservatives say a suspicious document was made to sway prisoners against them. We looked into it

Conservatives say suspicious document was created to incite inmates against them. We investigated
The document appears to be a doctored, poorly edited version of a real government page on tax education.

Three Conservative candidates have released a photo of a document they say was distributed in prisons to incite inmates against their party. But Correctional Services Canada said it has found no evidence that the document was distributed in prisons and stressed that it is not official or authentic.

In posts on social media Sunday, Conservative candidates Ron Chinzer, Larry Brook and Frank Caputo shared the document. Chinzer and Brook suggested the Liberal Party may be behind it.

Chinzer wrote in a post on social media X:
“This document was found in prison and was handed over by a prison guard. Is the Liberal Party really trying to win votes from criminals by targeting Conservative crime policies?”

A CBC News video review team examined the document in question and found it was likely a doctored version of a real federal government page that had nothing to do with prisons or voting. The page was actually about how to file tax returns.

Correctional Services Canada said in a statement that there was no evidence that the document had been distributed in prisons and that it was not official.

A video from CBC News on the subject shows that the letter the Conservatives released was likely a doctored version of a real government page that could easily be created using online editing tools.

Some social media users who reacted to the document noted its appearance, which appeared to be printed on “official Government of Canada letterhead” and had the official logo and text at the top.

The document mentions some of the Conservative Party’s proposals on crime, such as a three-strikes law for serious crimes, the designation of dangerous offenders, and more. But it also includes proposals that have never been proposed by the Conservatives, including: requiring maximum security prisoners to wear orange vests, removing televisions from prisons, and reducing prison budgets.

Some users responded to these posts by asking if prisoners even have the right to vote? In Canada, prisoners have been allowed to vote regardless of the length of their sentence since 2002.

Spelling errors and strange formatting

The document allegedly found in the prison has spelling errors. At the top of the page, the word “proposal” is misspelled as “preposal,” and elsewhere, the phrase “sellings guns” is spelled with an extra “s.”

The text format also looks messy and unprofessional, and the file path is visible in the lower left corner, suggesting that the document was likely printed from a personal computer.

The CBC team was able to easily reconstruct parts of the document. For example, key symbols that appear on the real site appear as empty squares on the fake version. This can be done by saving the original web page as a file, converting it to PDF, and editing it with online tools.

Correctional Services Canada’s response

The Correctional Services Canada said in a statement that the document is not an official government document and that they have found no evidence of it being distributed in prisons:

“Although there have been claims this week that this document was found in one of the prisons, we have consulted with prison authorities and have not found it. The image that has been shared on social media is not an official Canadian government document, and we oppose the publication of such documents bearing the Canadian government logo.”

Conservative Party Response

In response to CBC’s follow-up, Conservative Party headquarters reiterated that the document was handed over by a prison guard and found in one of the prisons.

It was also noted that a statement released by the Correctional Services Agency to another media outlet earlier this week did not explicitly state that the document was ever in the prisons, but only emphasized that it was “not currently” circulating.

However, neither the Conservative candidates nor the party’s central campaign responded to specific questions about where the document was distributed or why it was linked to the Liberal Party.

In contrast, the Liberal campaign referred the CBC to the same statement from the Correctional Services Agency.

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