Edited news report falsely shared as human faeces found near Hanuman statue in Brampton, Canada - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 28, 2023
A post accompanying a screenshot of the ‘Toronto Sun’ news report titled “Numerous piles of human feces have found around Hindu god Hanuman Statue in Brampton” is being shared on social media.  Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Numerous piles of human faeces appear in the area around the Hindu God statue in Brampto, Canada – Toronto Sun News Report.
Fact: This Toronto Sun’s report on human faeces found near Hanuman statue is a digitally edited one. The original news report published by Toronto Sun is titled “Massive statue of Hindu god being built in Brampton” which talks about the construction of the statue and the sculptor. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We conducted a keyword search on Google, taking a cue from the viral screenshot. However, we didn’t find any news reports with a similar title from ‘Toronto Sun’  or any other news source. The search, however, led us to another article published by the Canadian media outlet, ‘Toronto Sun’, on 15 December 2023, written by the same author (Denette Wilford) who was mentioned in the viral screenshot. The headline of the original news article reads: “Massive statue of Hindu god being built in Brampton”.
Here is a comparison between the viral news report and the screenshot of the actual news report on the Toronto Sun website. By comparing both, we can observe that it is the same report that has been altered with a different headline, confirming that the viral screenshot is edited. Moreover, the original news report discusses the construction of the statue and the sculptor.
According to a news report published by Indian Express, the 55-foot Hanuman statue will be formally unveiled at the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton, Canada, on 23 April 2024, coinciding with the Hanuman Jayanti, the deity’s birth anniversary.
To sum it up, the viral screenshot of the news article claiming ‘Numerous piles of human faeces appear in the area around the Hindu god statue…’ is a digitally edited one.