"Canard" is a fancy word for "bullshit."

Hit & Run > John McCain: We Must Stop Coddling Criminals - Reason Magazine:

"You’d never know from such speechifying that a record 1 in 100 Americans is behind bars today, including 400,000 for nonviolent drug crimes. Or that prosecutors win convictions in 90-95 percent of their cases. The “judges are letting criminals off on a technicality” line is a canard."