December 14, 2009 CBC The National
A group of veteran pranksters have stepped forward to say they are responsible for a series of fake news releases sent out Monday that claimed Canada had committed to drastic greenhouse gas emission cuts.
The U.S.-based Yes Men told The Associated Press they launched the complicated hoax to expose what the group feels is Canada's failure to take tough action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
A first fake announcement released around 8 a.m. ET Monday claiming to originate from Environment Canada said Canada had drastically changed its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets to levels preferred by environmentalists. The cuts in emissions cited were significantly greater than those Canada has publicly committed to.
Reporters who received the announcement at the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen were skeptical, however, as the stance in the email seemed particularly far off the government's public comments to date.
The broadly distributed email attributed quotes to Environment Minister Jim Prentice, who is in Copenhagen representing Canada at the summit, which the United Nations hopes will lead to a replacement agreement to the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. Read more at the CBC
