As Canada fears facing the worst bushfire season in its history, an online conspiracy theory is circulating claiming that environmental activists deliberately started some of the fires.

Maxime Bernier, a former foreign minister who became leader of a fringe party, wrote on Twitter on June 5: "I bet a large part of the wildfires raging across the country were started by environmentalists who want to give their climate campaign some momentum."

This year, Canada experienced the largest bushfires compared to the same period in previous years, with more than 3 million hectares burned and tens of thousands of people evacuated.

On TikTok, a video seen thousands of times so far reports that the fires in Nova Scotia province were "deliberately ignited to advance the climate change agenda."

A newspaper article also speculated that since 90 percent of Alberta's fires may have been "man-made," there is a possibility that "environmental terrorists" were behind them.

As wildfires spread in Quebec, some wondered how all the fires could break out on the same day.

A video posted on Facebook that garnered more than a million views blamed the fires on a "terrorist attack".


Investigations are ongoing

But Karine Pelletier of the county's wildfire protection agency said the causes were still under investigation.

"Many of them are caused by humans, but they are mostly accidents," she said, noting that recent lightning strikes are responsible for many wildfires in Quebec.

Alberta Wildfire told AFP that unless there was lightning, the fire was classified as man-made, which did not mean exclusively arson.

"They may be linked to general causes, including agriculture, forestry, power lines, the oil and gas industry or railways," said spokeswoman Melissa Storey.

Nova Scotia provincial officials also said they were still investigating the causes of the fires in the province, which are believed to be man-made.

Heather Fairburn, a spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Fire Service Office, said: "Man-made fires can be accidental, intentional or non-specific, and certainly we are seeing climate change impacts that may increase the risk of fires."

False novel

Conspiracy theorists have repeatedly tried to blame devastating wildfire seasons on politically motivated arsonists.

During Australia's "black summer" in 2020, social media users misleadingly cited arson statistics from the previous year to blame crimes unrelated to the following season's fires.

In California in 2021, arsonists were responsible for many wildfires, but without evidence that they were pushing the climate change agenda as some netizens claimed.

Chris Russell, a professor at Carleton University who specialises in climate, said the theory of environmental terrorism may have had a foundation in truth at first, but "it is overstated how important or meaningful it is".

This is the case in Canada, where some social media users cite real reports of suspicious fires to spread conspiracy theories about unrelated events and websites.


Climate change

One misconception is that the Canadian government set the fires to push climate change policies or to force civilians to flee to cities where it is easier to impose "climate-related lockdowns."

Russell linked those concerns to Canada's signing of the Paris climate agreement, which warned of an impending climate crisis.

After the Liberal government implemented tougher climate policy and taxes over the past decade, Russell said workers in Canada's natural resource industries had taken a defensive stance.

Social media posts insist that "arson, not climate change" is responsible for bushfires, but Canada's Natural Resources Management Authority told reporters on June 5 that the fire season had been exacerbated by hot, dry and windy conditions.

Mike Norton, director general of the Canadian Forest Centre, said: "Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of prairie fires and prolonging fire seasons."