Michael Mallinson, a 77-year-old retired banker, awoke from a nap in his Toronto home around 6 p.m. Wednesday. He had not been following the news. He had never heard of an American right-wing activist named Charlie Kirk.

It was then that Mallinson received a panicked call from his daughter. He had been accused, his daughter told him, of assassinating Kirk at an outdoor debate on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah. His daughter had already received hate messages on Facebook. She told Mallinson to delete his accounts.

“I was sort of shocked,” Mallinson told the Star Thursday morning, back home from his morning rowing session and getting ready to follow up with Toronto police about the mistaken identity case. “It’s a bit of a tempest in a teapot, but there could be longer-ter

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