They were fooled. People who thought they had been hired as extras on the set of a film found themselves ... in the middle of a real demonstration in Vancouver (Canada).
The hoax took place last Monday. A dozen men and women were holding signs outside a court to support Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei, who was challenging his extradition process to the United States. "Free Meng, Fair Justice!" Could be read on a sign. "Trump stops harassing us," said another. Except that these demonstrators did not suspect that it was a real procedure.
The strange tale of the paid protesters supporting Meng Wanzhou at her extradition hearing https://t.co/P5skAFlWRd pic.twitter.com/ytZ9DYgdbJ
- CBC British Columbia (@cbcnewsbc) January 22, 2020"No one had said: action! "
Some of them were found by Canadian journalists. They then explained that they had been paid between 100 and 150 Canadian dollars (69 and 103 euros) for two hours on what they thought was a film set. They had been approached on Facebook or by acquaintances.
“A CBS reporter approached me and my friend and started interviewing us. And it was then, with his questions, that I started to realize: OK, if it’s extra work, they wouldn’t need details about the extras, ”said a protester, Julia Hackstaff, on CBC. “I started to realize that no one had said: action! ". One question remains unanswered: who hired these "extras"? The Huawei group said it had "no relation to the demonstrators" and that it was "not informed" of the names of the organizers of the demonstration.
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