The Beaverton's scandalous untrue stories of Canadian history
History comes alive when it's full of manufactured, funny facts
Originally published on December 18, 2017.
DNA tests show that Sir John A. Macdonald really was the Father of Confederation.
"There was real competition between George-Étienne Cartier, George Brown too and a whole bunch of other men," says Alex Huntley, co-author of the book, The Beaverton presents Glorious and/or Free: The True History of Canada.
"It was a real 19th century Maury Povich situation," says his co-author Luke Field. "When Cartier found out he wasn't the father, he did a very nice dance."
"And sure enough, Sir John A., when he found out took a long, long drink of his flasks of gin," adds Huntley.
The Beaverton's fake news
The shocking bogus story about Sir John A. Macdonald is just one of the many fake scoops that Field and Huntley write about.
Equally untroubling is what they learned about the doomed Franklin Expedition that disappeared in 1845 while crossing the Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage.
"One thing we did discover as they set out on their voyage to discover is that they set out with a particular type of crew member in mind and that was, they evaluated crew members based on how competent they were, but also how delicious looking they were," says Field.
"Because it was very important for when they were stranded that each member they were forced to devour was more tasty than the last."
The Beaverton's take on the Franklin expedition (PDF KB)
The Beaverton's take on the Franklin expedition (Text KB)CBC is not responsible for 3rd party content
And the most amazing thing is that some of the news articles reprinted in the book were published thousands of years before the invention of the printing press — according to The Beaverton.
Listen to the full conversation near the top of this page.
This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.