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Investigate the Source: What kind of source is Vaccine Choice Canada?

SKILL: Investigate the Source

DIFFICULTY: Simple

SUBJECT(S): Science

Posted: November 20, 2025

Students will investigate Vaccine Choice Canada to learn it is an anti-vaccination advocacy group known for spreading disinformation.

Related Lesson

Verification Skills Lesson 2: Investigate the Source (sign-in required)

Link to Example

Vaccine Choice Canada (Instagram)
Logo of maple leaf. Left side is red and right side is green. There is a candle in the center that makes up the stem.

Background

In early November 2025, Canada lost its measles elimination status, which it had maintained for nearly three decades, following a year-long outbreak caused in part by declining vaccination rates.

Measles is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease. Once common in childhood, its typical symptoms include a body rash, fever, cough, runny nose, and inflamed eyes. While most people recover without long-term issues, measles can be serious or even fatal, especially for children under 5 and for people with weakened immune systems. 

Measles vaccines are safe and effective, and typically given to children in two doses before they reach school age. 



About the Example

Teacher note: If you cannot access Instagram, click here for a screenshot of the post that you can share with your students.

According to this Instagram post from a group called Vaccine Choice Canada, the “natural” measles infection isn’t what we should be worried about, but rather the deadly vaccine used to prevent it, instead!

Screenshot of an Instagram post from an account called vaccine.choice.canada. It includes an photo of a woman holding a baby in a yellow dress and text as well as a green and read maple leaf logo circled by the name "Vaccine Choice Canada". The title reads "Breaking Down Measles". The subtitle reads "If you had 5 mins, what would you say?" It includes 6 bullet points. "Natural measles infection confers life-long immunity.; Measles mortality rate declined 98.5% before the vaccine was introduced.; The measles vaccine is manufactured with a weakened live measles virus.; The measles virus is grown in a culture of chicken embryo cells.; The risk of death is more than 260 times higher in children vaccinated with the measles vaccine.; As of June 27, 2025, there have been more than 117,063 reports of measles vaccine reactions"

Before we take their word for it, let’s quickly investigate Vaccine Choice Canada to learn more about their agenda and reputation. By searching “vaccine choice canada wikipedia” we find their Wikipedia entry, which identifies them as Canada’s main anti-vaccination advocacy group. 

Here we learn they have contributed to vaccine hesitancy in Canada by encouraging Canadians to not receive vaccination and legislators to support anti-vaccine laws. One of the ways they do this is by spreading false and misleading information designed to create fear and confusion around vaccines.

In other words, this is definitely not a reputable source of information about vaccines, health or health policy!



Activities 

  1. Show students the post and ask them to identify the source.
  2. Have students use Wikipedia to learn more about the source by searching “vaccine choice canada wikipedia” and clicking on the Wikipedia entry. Guiding questions:
    • What is its agenda of Vaccine Choice Canada? 
    • Do you think the main goal of this post is to inform, to sell, to persuade, or to entertain? How do they use the information in the post to  achieve that purpose?
    • Is Vaccine Choice Canada a reliable place to learn about measles and vaccines? Explain your reasoning.
  3. Ask students to find high-quality sources to learn more about measles vaccines, such as medical experts, public health authorities, and professional news organizations.


Review and Discuss Key Concepts (optional)

  1. Watch Skill: Advanced Wikipedia – Bias & Agenda and review the distinction between bias and agenda:
    Bias: The favouring of one view over another.
    Agenda: What a person or group is trying to do.
  2. Watch CIVIX Explains: Persuasive Sources and review the following term:
    Advocacy: An activity by an individual or group that aims to influence public opinion and decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy-focused activities can include media campaigns, public speaking and publishing research.
  3. Explain the concept of cherry-picking: selectively choosing data that supports a particular position while ignoring evidence that contradicts it. This is a common tactic in pseudoscience and includes highlighting a single study that supports a claim while ignoring the broader scientific consensus, or using outdated, misinterpreted, or out-of-context data to make an argument seem stronger than it actually is. For example, the claim that “the risk of death is more than 260 times higher in children vaccinated with the measles vaccine” is based on data from a website where people submitted their own information, and not from any scientific study that was designed to determine if a vaccine actually caused the health problem reported. Ask students to explore how other claims in the post are examples of cherry-picking.


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