Did the mayor of Dorval, a suburb of Montreal, Canada, tell Muslims they need to leave Canada if they cannot integrate into Canadian culture and "We don't have room for you and your ideology"? No, that's not true: The city of Dorval, in Quebec, has denounced this false story, saying the mayor has never made comments like that. A photo included in the post doesn't even show the mayor of Dorval -- it shows a Belgian politician.
The claim -- which goes back to at least 2015, when the city of Dorval issued a statement denouncing the claim as false -- appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) published on July 4, 2021. The photo in the post shows Belgian politician Tanguy Veys, on the right, not the current mayor of Dorval, Edgar Rouleau. The European Commission building in Brussels, Belgium (the Berlaymont building) can be seen in the background so the photo clearly was not taken in Canada. Here is another picture (archived here) from the same demonstration that was uploaded in 2008.
The post opens:
Wow, this Mayor is great!
Muslim parents demanded removal of pork in all school canteen in Montreal and its suburbs. The mayor of Dorval, a suburb of Montreal, refused and sent a note to all parents to explain why.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Jul 8 16:20:58 2021 UTC)
The post's text, excerpted here, continues:
'For Muslims who disagree with secularism and don't feel comfortable in Canada, there are 57 wonderful Muslim countries in the world, most of them are poorly populated and ready to accept them with open arms according to Sharia.
'If you left your country for Canada, no for other Muslim countries, it's because you believed life in Canada was better than somewhere else. We will not allow you to bring Canada down to the level of those 57 countries.
'Ask yourself this question - just once :"Why is it better here in Canada than where you came from?" The canteen with the pork in the menu is part of the answer.'
If you came to Canada with the idea that you would displace us with your prolific spread and eventually take over the country, you would have to pack up and go back where you came from. We don't have room for you and your ideology.
The city of Dorval released a statement (archived here) on January 27, 2015, denouncing the claim when it was posted then.
The statement read:
For a number of weeks now, false news has been circulating on social networks, as well as via a string of emails, about the Mayor of Dorval having allegedly refused to follow up on a request from Muslim parents asking him to remove pork from the City's school cafeterias. The story also quotes speculative comments from the Mayor in regards to Muslims.
The City of Dorval wishes to denounce this false article and resents this identity usurpation. Internet users across the world have published this false news as it was true, and the Mayor would like to set the record straight by saying that, on no account, he, nor any the City's representatives, have made such comments.
Albeit difficult to track the origins of this hoax, our research has led us to believe that it started in the United States. A similar hoax about a Mayor in Belgium had traveled the Web in 2013.
Lead Stories has reached out to the city of Dorval for an updated statement on this story. We will update the story when a response has been received.
Lead Stories previously debunked the 'similar hoax' mentioned in the statement about a mayor in Belgium who allegedly also refused to accommodate Muslim parents in regard to pork.
