Thread by @steffanwatkins

On 2022-01-17 at 14:36 EST Global News published an article by Alex Boutilier, Mercedes Stephenson, and David Baxter about Canada deploying special forces to Ukraine, and an allegation the troops were sent over around January 9th, 2022.
globalnews.ca/news/8517110/c…

On 2022-01-17 at 17:00 EST I published original open source research, with all the flight information about the aircraft which flew from Valcartier, with unknown Canadian Forces personnel, to Kyiv, and I included all the primary sources for the data.

https://twitter.com/steffanwatkins/status/1483197625990057988?s=20

Confirming the flight happened increases the possibility Special Forces were deployed to Ukraine to help prepare for an evacuation of personnel.

I'd like to know if any other Canadian news media did their homework before publishing their articles about the same story.

On 2022-01-17 (unknown time) Reuters published their wire piece by Ismail Shakil & David Ljunggren, which was picked up and published by The National Post. It contained no open source analysis or confirmation the alleged flight took place.
nationalpost.com/news/world/can…

On 2022-01-17 (unknown time) The Montreal Gazette also ran the Reuters wire piece, with no confirmation the flight happened, despite the evidence being clicks away, freely available to anyone with a few browser.
montrealgazette.com/news/world/can…

On 2022-01-17 at 22:56 EST CTV published their piece by Glen McGregor and Ben Cousins, it did not mention anything about open source research, or include confirmation that the alleged flight happened.
ctvnews.ca/politics/small…

On 2022-01-18 at 19:04 EST CBC published their article by Murray Brewster, which does not mention the RCAF flight allegedly carrying special forces had been flew from Valcartier to Kyiv.
cbc.ca/news/politics/…

I didn't find any mention in The Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, or Canadian Press of the story.

It's fascinating to look horizontally at a story, and see which outlets wrote something, which grabbed it off the wire, and which didn't write anything at all.

Any plane-related story can, and should, be fact-checked using open sources to confirm its veracity. I'm unclear why this isn't being done regularly by Canadian journalists, and why it isn't being demanded by editors; it's 2022, and I've been showing you how it's done for years.

You want engagement, Canadian News Media? George shows you how, using open source flight data.

YOU CAN DO THIS TOO. 👇

https://twitter.com/geoallison/status/1483899430378127365?t=_h_tAmtqiqo2YQqM179LBA&s=19