# Canada's Gov. wants to buy grenades in response to COVID-19? Website exploit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 18, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696 "2021-10-18T15:45:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![edwin\_klockars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@edwin\_klockars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwin_klockars)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/1 "2021-10-18T15:45:14Z")
There is some viral nonsense making the rounds on Facebook and I’m having trouble debunking it. If you goto the official website of the government, [http://canada.ca](http://canada.ca) and then search for “Grenades and tear gas” the top search result appears to show that the government was requesting grenade contractors back in 2016 in response to COVID-19. Clearly this is ridiculous but it is also hard to explain as the document appears on the real government’s website. Can one explain what website bug was exploiting that resulted in this? [Here](https://imgur.com/a/23oqPdR) is a screen grab I just took > ### [Grenades, Tear Gas - Buyandsell.gc.ca](https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/goods-and-services-identification-number/gsin/N1330B) > > - Public Works and Government Services Canada > - Acquisitions Branch > - Office of Small and Medium Enterprises and Strategic Engagement > > [buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/goods-and-services-identification-number/gsi…](https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/goods-and-services-identification-number/gsin/N1330B) > > > Mar 2, 2016 - **Grenades** , **Tear** **Gas** Attention! Are you a business that can supply products and services in support of Canada’s response to COVID-19? Canada wants to hear from you. Find out more here. Details GSIN Code N1330B GSIN Description **Grenades** , **Tear** **Gas** GSIN Category Goods GSIN Group Description Ammunition and Explosives GSIN Class Description **Grenades** GSIN Code ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/2 "2021-10-18T15:54:10Z")
- The mention of COVID-19 is pretty generic. - It’s associated with a link to an external website (not canada.ca) called gc.ca (still official government, it seems). - If you click through to the actual listing, the requisition is closed, and there is no text about COVID-19 at all. I suspect that what happens is that canada.ca queries gc.ca and says, “Hey, somebody searched XXXX, what have you got?” and gc.ca replies “here’s my list of relevant pages, along with summaries”. Now somebody at gc.ca stuck a bit of copy into the responses, so that various links would add this bit of patriotic text into the summary. It’s not included in the very next link in the search, so it seems to not be all the summaries. Somehow the summary of that old link got updated with this bit of copy. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/3 "2021-10-18T15:56:14Z")
I agree, it’s probably just a blurb that was added to the top of various pages. ---
**Author:** ![edwin\_klockars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@edwin\_klockars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwin_klockars)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/4 "2021-10-18T16:00:35Z")
This sounds logical, but I can’t manage to replicate the ‘response to covid-19’ bit for any other search result. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/5 "2021-10-18T16:01:06Z")
Try searching for “grass cutting”. I got this: [buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-KIN-690-6066?order=date\_awa…](https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-KIN-690-6066?order=date_award&sort=asc) > May 30, 2013 - **Grass** **cutting** (W3713-13KN18/A) The Government of Canada needs products and services in support of Canada’s response to COVID-19. Learn how to supply a needed product or service Tender Notice Status Publishing status Awarded Days to closing 7 years 6 months ago Dates Publication date 2013/01/30 Amendment date 2013/05/30 Date closing 2013/04/09 14:00 They probably knew they would need a lot of grass cutting due to the Covid-19 mass graves. ---
**Author:** ![edwin\_klockars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@edwin\_klockars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwin_klockars)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2021, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/6 "2021-10-18T16:41:08Z")
Found one for Diapers [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/FaqvzWj.png?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/TrYr8ZV) ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/7 "2021-10-19T11:29:52Z")
> [@tofor](#): > > It’s associated with a link to an external website (not canada.ca) called gc.ca (still official government, it seems). “GC” stands for “Government of Canada” or “Gouvernement du Canada” depending on which official language you’re using. It was the original Canadian government domain, serving kind of like \*.gov.uk serves as the UK government domain. They tried to migrate all the government websites to \*.canada.ca some years ago, but the project [sputtered out](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-government-to-downsize-failing-canada-ca-project-1.4202563). ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/8 "2021-10-19T11:38:56Z")
Oh, that. They were considering throwing them into crowds randomly in order to increase social distancing, but the PR aspect of it caused them to reconsider. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/9 "2021-10-19T11:53:32Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > “GC” stands for “Government of Canada” or “Gouvernement du Canada” depending on which official language you’re using. It was the original Canadian government domain, serving kind of like \*.gov.uk serves as the UK government domain. They tried to migrate all the government websites to \*.canada.ca some years ago, but the project [sputtered out](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-government-to-downsize-failing-canada-ca-project-1.4202563). Makes sense. It still makes me suspect that the search results are somehow being served back to the search tool from multiple services, which helps explain why it shows up sporadically. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/10 "2021-10-19T22:55:21Z")
Throwing diapers into crowds as a Covid-19 measure?\* Wouldn’t N95 masks have been a better idea? \*this isn’t a bad idea for some demonstrations. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2021, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/11 "2021-10-20T08:25:34Z")
Dirty diapers might be a better crowd dispersal tactic than tear gas. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2021, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/12 "2021-10-20T10:13:00Z")
Here’s a Wayback Machine snapshot of that page from 2017: [https://web.archive.org/web/20170725132149/https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/goods-and-services-identification-number/gsin/N1330B](https://web.archive.org/web/20170725132149/https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/goods-and-services-identification-number/gsin/N1330B) ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/13 "2021-10-20T14:57:11Z")
Thanks Mangetout, but that page doesn’t actually mention COVID-19 even now. It’s only in the search results summary for that page, which I doubt is archived. ---
**Author:** ![Truthwillprevail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@Truthwillprevail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truthwillprevail)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/14 "2021-10-21T19:07:31Z")
So Canada.ca pulled a 1984 and wiped out the grenades and tear gas one but they left so many!!! Go look up just grenades or Spare Parts for Leopard or Herkules or General Dynamics or Launchers, Rocket Dates as far back as 2012!!! And what do they need all these weapons for a flu??? ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/15 "2021-10-22T11:13:14Z")
Did you read the thread? This is almost certainly nothing but a software programming error. ---
**Author:** ![Truthwillprevail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@Truthwillprevail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truthwillprevail)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/16 "2021-10-22T13:51:47Z")
Yup nothing to see here…move along…keep on drinking the kool-aid…time will tell but it will be too late when all you trusting souls wake up ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/17 "2021-10-22T15:10:23Z")
> [@Truthwillprevail](#): > > Dates as far back as 2012!!! > And what do they need all these weapons for a flu??? And yet, somehow, for 8 long years, no one searching for Canadian government tenders on their public website ever bothered to ask, “What’s this COVID thingy they keep going on about?” I guess they were all just, “Oh, well, better not bother, I’m a sheeple anyways, I guess I just won’t wonder about it…” ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/18 "2021-10-22T15:48:30Z")
> [@Truthwillprevail](#): > > And what do they need all these weapons for a flu??? GRASS CUTTING!!! Why would they need that for Covid??? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/19 "2021-10-22T15:52:47Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > GRASS CUTTING!!! Why would they need that for Covid??? So sheeple can’t blame their symptoms on their allergies, duh. Makes it easier to round them up into Happy Camps. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696/20 "2021-10-22T19:13:29Z")
Oh my sweet lord… [[Album] Daycare and furnishings ![](https://i.imgur.com/Pzt9XmS.jpeg?fb "Daycare and furnishings") ](https://imgur.com/a/FZ0L3Ed) Now they’re testing Covid on kids using daycare furnishings and toys??? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadas-gov-wants-to-buy-grenades-in-response-to-covid-19-website-exploit/952696.md?page=2)