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In the weeks since he entered the Liberal leadership race, ads both for and against him have sprouted across social media. While mudslinging is par for the course in politics, one particularly dark current has worked 鈥� without evidence 鈥� to tie him to Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious American financier and trafficker of underage girls who, though dead for six years, remains a very current fixation in far-right circles.

It traces back to , Epstein鈥檚 ex-girlfriend who remains in prison for her role in Epstein鈥檚 crimes, at a British music festival over a decade ago. The photos are real, though not particularly unusual. As a socialite, Maxwell pops up in a lot of photos from the era, with people with no connection to Epstein.听

But, boosted by fake AI-generated images, interest in the original photos has metastasized into questions, concerns and even false claims that Carney himself is tied to child trafficking. It鈥檚 a sign, experts say, of how deeply rooted the remnants of conspiracy theories like QAnon and Pizzagate 鈥� both baselessly warned about elites and pedophilia 鈥� have become even in Canada.

鈥淐arney is almost a perfect target for these ideas,鈥� notes Amarnath Amarasingam, an associate professor who studies conspiracy theories and online communities at Queen鈥檚 University, in an email. 鈥淗e moved in multiple elite circles, all of which have 鈥� separately 鈥� been the object of conspiracy theories, such as climate finance, the World Economic Forum, and central banking.鈥澨�

The phenomenon is now spilling over into Carney鈥檚 real-world rallies. On Wednesday evening in Kitchener, he was interrupted by a heckler demanding to know how many kids he鈥檇 鈥渕olested鈥� with Epstein. Carney attempted to continue his speech as the yelling intensified, before bemoaning, in French, the interaction as 鈥渢he product of the politics of division, of conspiracy theories.鈥�

A few people were ushered out of the room. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 win 鈥榚m all,鈥� he quipped.听

So how did we get here? Long before he was the banker who steered the United Kingdom through Brexit or the reluctant politician who came home to lead the Liberals, a relaxed-looking Carney was snapped standing next to Ghislaine Maxwell, with her signature dark pixie cut and sunglasses, at a British music festival in 2013. While they鈥檙e standing next to each other, Carney seems to be reacting to the man standing on his other side. It wouldn鈥檛 be until two years later, in 2015, that claims against Maxwell were revealed in a trove of . (She has since been in prison for conspiring to sexually abuse minors.)听

But at the time the photo was taken, Maxwell was not 鈥渙n the radar,鈥� says Adrian Sherratt, the British photographer who . He鈥檇 been dispatched to the festival by the Sunday Times to grab a photo of the newly-minted governor of the Bank of England letting his hair down, or 鈥渓ooking awkward in a festival atmosphere,鈥� as he put it. Carney didn鈥檛 do much, as Sherratt recalls, other than walk around with his wife.

The presence of Carney鈥檚 wife is relevant to the story. The festival in question is known as Wilderness Festival, which was held that year at Cornbury Park, a sprawling estate and former royal hunting ground that is so old it got a mention in the Doomsday Book commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1085. It also so happens to belong to Carney鈥檚 in-laws 鈥� his wife鈥檚 sister is married to the lord who inherited it.听

Roughing it, this festival is not. referred to it as 鈥淧oshstock,鈥� while about the ground鈥檚 鈥渟ecret well-being sanctuary.鈥� Sherratt says it attracted a certain well-heeled crowd, and Carney and Maxwell were likely both part of that. (Maxwell is the daughter of a wealthy press baron who faced financial scandal before mysteriously falling to his death off a yacht.) But Sherratt says he has since looked back through the photos he kept and can鈥檛 find a frame that shows them talking to each other. Sherratt said he never saw the two interact in any way.

The explanation here is that Maxwell went to high school with Carney鈥檚 wife鈥檚 sister, claims a source familiar with the photo who agreed to speak on the condition the Star does not reveal their name, adding that the banker and the disgraced socialite were 鈥渘ot friends.鈥澨�

Meanwhile, a representative for the Carney campaign dismissed the furor in an email as 鈥渇alse claims and disinformation鈥� and said that the 鈥渙nly thing he is focused on is dealing with the very real challenges Canadians are facing, including President Trump鈥檚 unjustified tariffs.鈥澨�

While 鈥渃onspiracy theories which accuse elites of engaging in pedophilia are as old as the hills,鈥� Amarasingam says, they became particularly entrenched in conspiracy culture in the wake of QAnon, which has given Epstein鈥檚 case particular allure. 鈥淭he Epstein case has become a key node in many such theories 鈥� a kind of plug-and-play idea, which is an easy way to link all kinds of unrelated individuals to shadowy and evil networks.鈥澨�

When Trump returned to office, for example, one of his more niche promises to his supporters was to release more documentation from the investigation, with a bevy of MAGA influencers recently summoned to the White House to receive binders of paperwork. (Many have since complained that nothing new was contained in them.)听

But the photo has since taken on a narrative of its own, one supercharged by AI. The photo taken by Sherratt began bubbling up on social media in January by accounts claiming, without evidence, a close relationship with Epstein. It got high-profile boosts from the likes of Russell Brand 鈥� the British comedian and former husband to Katy Perry turned who to protect wearers from Wi-Fi signals.

Rebel News personalities drove a truck with the photo plastered on the side around Ottawa question in all caps: Why was Carney 鈥渉anging out鈥� with Maxwell, 鈥淛effrey Epstein鈥檚 sex trafficker?鈥� (Based on the Rebel鈥檚 own video, many Ottawans on the street were reluctant to take the bait.) The conservative-leaning Canada Proud advertising group ran ads with the photo with text warning of 鈥渢he video Mark Carney and his creepy, billionaire friends don鈥檛 want you to see.鈥�

But there is now a slew of fake AI-generated images adding fuel to the fire. According to the听 at 海角社区官网Metropolitan University, the AI-generated images of Carney being shared now include some of him and Maxwell; an image of Carney and Epstein in a pool and even one of Carney, Epstein and famous nice guy actor Tom Hanks. (The last has also been debunked by , which notes an uncropped version bears the watermark of Grok, the AI from Elon Musk鈥檚 X.)听

As is increasingly common on the modern internet, these AI versions of Carney and Maxwell have been widely shared alongside the real photos, making the two look closer and cosier than in real life and further muddying the reality of the duo鈥檚 genuine interaction.

There are ways to tell the Carney images are AI-generated, says Lauren Dwyer, an associate professor at Mount Royal University studying emerging technologies and how they influence behaviour. The colours are too saturated. The lighting is off. They just look a little odd.

Also, why would he be so dressed up on the beach, she wonders, referring to the image of Carney and Hanks, in which Carney鈥檚 shirt decidedly channels business casual. Still they鈥檙e already far more convincing than the images produced by earlier generative AI programs 鈥� 鈥渆veryone has the right number of fingers,鈥� she notes 鈥� and only getting better. They also represent an escalation of attack ads that Canada may not be ready for, she adds.听

鈥淭he way I describe artificial intelligence is we may think of it as a mirror that reflects society, but in reality, AI is a magnifying glass 鈥� it鈥檚 blowing things up so much further and more extreme than we would anticipate,鈥� says Dwyer.

Her worry about AI imagery during an election is it is the potential to dial up a controversy and push users for an angrier, more emotional reaction. At a time when people are increasingly burrowed into online echo chambers, looking at curated feeds of information served up by an algorithm, AI has the potential to drive that wedge deeper.听

In this case, whether or not AI images perfectly imitate life might be beside the point. As politics gets more inflammatory, the number of people who are genuinely looking to learn about Carney or Epstein by looking at these images is shrinking, Dwyer says. Instead, people primed to believe that Carney is part of an elite cabal of criminals are happy to let these images reinforce their existing beliefs. Those who know it to be false are outraged, she adds, but if the point here is to drive engagement, that reaction still prompts them to interact with the image, to share it, call it out, and try to prove it wrong.

鈥淔or the most part, you鈥檙e not clicking on something unless you either a. want the verification to know you were right and the image is real or b. want the verification to know you were right 鈥� and the image is wrong,鈥� Dwyer says.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 your little bit of dopamine hit for the day, because nothing feels better than seeing something that makes you feel like you鈥檙e right on the internet.鈥澨�

Editor’s note — April, 1, 2025

This article has been amended. The photo cutline for this article has been updated to better describe details behind the photograph of Carney at the music festival. Additional context from the photographer regarding what he saw when he took the pictures, has also been added. The photographer’s name, Adrian Sherratt, has also been corrected.