A retired banker living in Toronto found himself unwillingly thrust into the centre of a political firestorm after being falsely linked to the shooting of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk on Wednesday.

Michael Mallinson, 77, had no idea what was happening until he got a panicked phone call around 6 p.m., while he was taking a nap. It was his daughter, instructing him to delete his social media because his name and photo were being spread online by an account claiming he was the suspect in the shooting.

The problem: Mallinson says he's never set foot in Utah.

"This was all shock and horror, first of all, that there'd been a shooting, but second of all that I was in any way named or implicated in it," said Mallinson.

Kirk, a right-wing activist and close ally of U.S. President Donald

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