A video of two men confronting a group over allegedly reckless gunfire in Canada circulated widely on X on November 9 and was watched over 900k times. Russia’s state-controlled broadcaster RT helped distribute the footage, describing the people involved as “careless migrants.” The video itself provides no evidence of their immigration status.
The approximately 53-second recording captures complaints about shots allegedly passing overhead. The people filming confront others and demand that they stop firing. No one in the supplied dialogue identifies the shooters as migrants, foreign nationals or foreign residents. Their identity and the precise circumstances of the incident have not been independently established.
How the story spread
Canadian commentator Max Genest posted the earliest identified copy in this collection, describing the people involved as “Indian migrants” and calling for “total remigration.” About two hours and 46 minutes later, RT uploaded its own version and repeated the migrant label – indicating that Russian State media is actively monitoring the Canadian information space on Twitter. Another account subsequently quoted Genest’s post to argue that mass immigration threatens public safety.
Other accounts went further. A “UK Patriot” post described the incident as occurring in America, despite Genest’s Canadian setting. Another post introduced an unverified claim about a Diwali celebration. These additions illustrate how an incident can acquire new political and factual claims as the clip circulates.
How far did it travel?
DisinfoWatch reviewed a 24-hour X API collection containing 797 posts gathered through searches for the video and related migration-and-shooting language. Some were unrelated to this incident; 797 is therefore not a count of posts amplifying this video.
At the November 9 collection snapshot, Genest’s post recorded 1,340,017 post impressions, 910,228 video views, 21,323 likes and 3,217 reposts. RT’s upload recorded 139,352 impressions, 80,102 video views and 550 reposts.
The two posts together account for nearly 1.48 million displayed post impressions.
The difference between the posts matters. The largest visible audience was on Genest’s upload; RT’s role was to carry an existing allegation through a Russian state-media channel. The available data does not show that RT produced the original footage or directed Genest’s posting.
Screenshots of Twitter/X posts including video of the incident.
A familiar method in France
Russia-linked accounts have previously used real political unrest to circulate anti-immigration allegations.
On November 9, Reuters reported an EU assessment of how the Matryoshka, or Operation Overload, network exploited protests and riots in France. Accounts impersonating Western news outlets reportedly circulated fabricated videos alleging migrant attacks and imminent terrorism, while seeking to discredit French authorities.
The ten most-viewed pro-Russian posts about the French unrest drew an estimated 2.8 million views over three days in October, according to figures reported by the French Foreign Ministry and summarized by Meduza. Accounts associated with the U.S. MAGA movement and Israeli sources also promoted immigration-related narratives, receiving substantially more views in that period.
European investigators did not find evidence that Russia instigated the French unrest. Their concern was the exploitation of events already underway. Reuters said it could not independently verify all findings in the assessments it reviewed.
Why this matters in Canada
The video may show a genuine and dangerous firearms-safety incident. But the captions turn it into a claim about an entire group: that immigration endangers Canadian public safety. The recording cannot establish the subjects’ nationality or immigration status, yet those assumptions became central to how it was promoted.
RT did not need to fabricate an incident to amplify a divisive interpretation of it. The framing can travel through shorter clips, new uploads and cross-border political accounts, although the available evidence cannot predict the scale of future circulation or demonstrate changes in public opinion.
The evidence documents an unsupported immigration label attached to an apparently real confrontation, then amplified by RT and other accounts. It does not establish a centrally coordinated campaign around this specific video.
For Russian information operations, the objective is to use this story to intensify conflict and division within Canadian society.
What to Anticipate
Russian information operations appear to be intensifying their targeting of immigration related issues worldwide through disinformation and amplification of voices that align with this Russian government objective. We anticipate that this pattern will continue in Western democracies including Canada.