The headline — “Quebec man pleads guilty to setting 14 forest fires, burning hundreds of hectares” — was shocking, but the reaction to it spreading on social media was even more troubling to climate change experts. Soon after news articles were published about Brian Paré, who admitted on Monday to setting fires last year, people on X (Twitter) were quick to accuse the government and the media of lying to them. When will the media “admit the summer of fires was a lot to do with arson and little to do with ‘climate change’. Never because they love to fear monger,” one person posted on X. Many of the comments were replies to posts from other accounts with tens of thousands of followers. In reality, Paré ignited fires in central Quebec that burned a little more than 900 hectares, Crown prosecutor Marie-Philippe Charron confirmed. …Some of the dubious posts on X were shared thousands of times.