New Delhi, Jan 23 (Kaushiki Goel / Abhinav Gupta, PTI Fact Check): A video of Canadian MP Chandra Arya speaking in Kannada in the Canadian Parliament was recently shared on social media with users claiming that he spoke in his first language after filing nominations for the post of Canadian Prime Minister. However, an investigation by PTI Fact Check Desk found that the viral video dated back to May 2022, when he first spoke in Kannada mother tongue in the Canadian Parliament. The old video wasshared on social media as recent with a false claim.
Chandra Arya, an Indian-origin Liberal Party MP from Nepean, Ottawa, recently announced his candidacy to become the Prime Minister of Canada following Justin Trudeau’s resignation.
Claim
An X (formerly Twitter) user shared a post on January 18, claiming that it showed Canadian MP Chandra Arya speaking in Kannada after filing his nominations for the Canadian PM post.
The caption of the post,which has garnered 450.9k views so far, read: “Kannada in Canada!! Canadian MP Chandra Arya officially enters the race to become Canada’s next Prime Minister and speaks in Kannada after filing his nomination.”
Here is the link and archive link and below is a screenshot of the same.

Investigation
The Desk conducted a customised keyword search and found that several users had shared the same video with a similar claim.
Two such posts can be found here and here, and their archived versions can be viewed here and here, respectively.
We conducted another set of customised keyword searches on Google, but did not find any report corroborating the viral claim.
On further scanning the search results, we found Canadian MP Chandra Arya’s X post, dated May 20, 2022, where he spoke his first language Kannada in Canadian parliament.
The caption of the post read: “I spoke in my mother tongue (first language) Kannada in Canadian parliament. This beautiful language has long history and is spoken by about 50 million people. This is the first time Kannada is spoken in any parliament in the world outside of India.”
Here is the link to the post and below is a screenshot of the same.

This was the same video as the one shared on social media. Below is a screenshot highlighting the same:

We also found a PTI report carried by Times of India on May 20, 2022, whose headline read: “Canadian MP Chandra Arya’s speech in Kannada in Parliament earns him praise”
Here is the link to the report, and below is a screenshot of the same.

Subsequently, the Desk concluded that the viral video dates back to 2022 when Chandra Arya spoke in Kannada in the Canadian Parliament.
CLAIM
Canadian MP Chandra Arya spoke in Kannada after filing nomination in his bid to become the next Canadian PM.
FACT
The video dates back to 2022 when Arya spoke in the Canadian Parliament.
CONCLUSION
Several social media users shared a video of Canadian MP Chandra Arya, claiming that it showed him speaking in Kannada after filing nominations for the post of Canadian prime minister. In its investigation, the Desk found that a video dating back to May 2022, when Arya spoke in Kannada in the Canadian parliament, was shared on social media as recent with a false claim.
This story was originally published by PTI . and republished by The Sikkim Chronicle as part of the Shakti Collective