The Courier’s April Fool’s joke revealed

The Courier reported last week on the new municipal bylaw dictating that anyone who wanted to walk their dogs on the beach would from April 1 have to carry a valid beach permit, carry doggie doo bags and clean up after their dogs.

Social media went crazy with readers’ varied responses to the story. Numerous law abiding citizens arrived at the Salt Rock library to buy permits and the Courier office received phone calls from readers wanting to know if the new bylaw applied to all the beaches in the area.

“Some people did believe this as I had them coming to the library for more information,” said librarian Shakila Singh on Facebook.

Totally convinced of the storie’s truthfulness, Jessica Skye Greasley posted a picture of the article and letter on the ‘Meet My Neighbour’ Facebook page, expressing her outrage.

“Serious? Permits? I disagree. Dogs should be allowed on the beach. The municipality cannot enforce the litter and fishermen who litter, then good luck! I am not paying my “fines” or taking any slack from vagrants. How will we know if they are seriously working or just trying their luck. Also, one can not say “they are rich” in a newspaper article; I find it biased.

Dogs should be welcomed on the beach! Try and enforce the rules before making a new law. I agree, pick up your dog’s doo doo; enforce that, but they can not, so now we must pay pay pay! I may get scolded for what I am saying, but I just find it unfair,” said Greasley.

The Bugle owner Thomas Yoko also fell lock, stock and barrel for the joke and also jumped on the Facebook band wagon.

“What are they going to do with the confiscated dogs? Who asked for this level of control? Did the public have a say in this? Who are these people?” said Yoko.

Natalie Wocke was another innocent victim of the Courier’s April fools joke and was upset at what she called “another way to tax the wealthy”.

“Are they going to fine people who have unlicensed dogs in a poor area? This is selective additional taxation of a targeted few; discriminatory at least,” said Wocke.

Hazel van der Stok wrote to the Courier, telling us how she fell “hook line and sinker” for the story

“I started to read it to my daughter when she immediately got on the phone to her hubby who is an avid beach walker (with his two dachshunds) to warn him of the new ruling as from the previous day. Much to her dismay, he started laughing and pointed out that it was an April fools joke!” said van der Stok.

The grammar Nazis were also out in full force and picked up on all our deliberate spelling mistakes.

“What makes it so believable is the lack of correct spelling!” said Jason Arnold.

Sandy Coughlan wanted to know why the signage company did not check their spelling, and Daniel van Wyngaardt said the new bylaw must be legitimate and could only come from Council as the spelling on the beach signage was bad.

Considering the extent to which some of our readers were caught out, we have to commend those individuals who followed the trail of crumbs (names, spelling mistakes and absurdity of the story) and coming to the conclusion that this must have been a hoax.

“Sounds like Bruce Stephenson’s annual April fool’s story! Read it to the end – it will all make sense,” said Michelle Holdsworth. (You can read the Editors ‘Two Bits’ column on the April Fool’s here).

Privi Makhan also figured it out and said she looked forward to these “very entertaining” articles every year.

The bottom line of the story was beautifully summed up by Pam Ills on Facebook.

“This is Wednesday, April 1 and this is the Courier!”, she said.