The question is: is this a fake buy signal to suck in retial (increase volume) before bringing the price back down again before finishing covering. 

or

Does it signal that shorts have or are finishing covering regardless of price?

Price action today should answer this question. 

There were 4 million shares short between the OTC and TSX.V on April 15th- thats alot of shorts to cover given the low volume. 

IMO