Driving rule misinformation causing confusion for N.S. seniors

A new scam in the Maritimes is targeting seniors who drive.

Several social media posts and articles claim new driving rules will impact seniors in 2026, but the Nova Scotia government has deemed them to be untrue.

There are a number of posts online that explain changes in cognitive tests and added medical and vision checks. Seniors like Len Raymond, 78, believed them.

“I saw that on the internet mostly about the changes coming into effect and I think it’s totally wrong. There are lots of good drivers out there that are seniors,” says Raymond.

Raymond spoke with several friends who also believed the posts.

“We thought it was true because it seemed like it was coming from the provincial government,” says Raymond.

It’s all part of a misinformation campaign that Bill VanGorder with the Canadian Association of Retired Persons believes started from conversations in Ontario.

“In Ontario there have been discussions about perhaps changing the rules around how drivers are tested as they get older so the scammers have taken that little bit of truth – the fact that they are thinking about it – and turned it into something, making it seem like it’s going to happen.” says VanGorder.

“One reason why seniors are vulnerable is because they are often too trusting. If they see it online or see it in the news somewhere, they are likely to believe before they question.”

“This could be incredibly stressful for seniors and others. We look at the impact for Atlantic Canadians. Half of the population still lives in semi-rural or rural areas and so this idea that you could lose your mobility has massive implications for a broad subset of individuals,” says David Shipley, Beauceron Security CEO and co-founder.

“We are seeing this pop up not just in Nova Scotia, but it happened five months ago in New Brunswick and happened last fall in Australia. What scammers have figured out is that this is a hot button topic for society.”

The Nova Scotia government said it has heard about the online misinformation campaign from other jurisdictions

“We’ve heard from several other jurisdictions that they are seeing similar messages to this. There is no truth to it, and we warned Nova Scotians about it in June,” says Toby Koffman on behalf of the Department of Public Works.

Shipley explains there are several reasons why a false campaign could have been started.

“Objective number one is to make it seem like our society is falling apart, that democracy is not working, that we can’t trust the government. For a number of nation states – Russia, China, Iran, and other places – making the west look broken is job number one and it’s mainly for internal audiences,” says Shipley.

Shipley says the next part is to weaken and tear apart society at a time when unity is needed.

“The third side, this is something we have seen, and it goes back almost a decade to the U.S. presidential elections. What you will see on Facebook and other groups is that people will start these kinds of rage topics. It can be everything from the seniors’ driver’s license, we saw it in the trucker’s convoy, and they pull together mass audiences of people. Later they will actually switch the topic to be something else and now they have built up a captive audience that can receive that,” say Shipley.

Shipley says artificial intelligence makes the spread of misinformation even more rapid.

“I live in a senior building and my sister lives in a senior building, and there is an average of two scams a week at my residence,” says Schaefer Coolen, who lives in Halifax.

VanGorder feels the government should explain the truth around current driving rules and regulations to seniors.

“The government should come out strongly explaining exactly what the rules are in their province and make sure they get that information out to seniors. That doesn’t mean posting it on social media. We still have a lot of seniors that only use the internet to respond to emails,” says VanGorder.

To protect all Canadians from the spread of misinformation, Shipley suggests holding the big tech companies accountable.

“Facebook, X, YouTube, all of the big tech companies need to be financially accountable for scams,” says Shipley.

He says algorithms should be an individual’s choice and they should have freedom to choose the content they want to be exposed to.

“Canadians need new tools, and it needs to be fast, easy to do to hold these companies accountable from an individual standpoint,” says Shipley.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page