diff --git a/news/6659.trivial b/news/6659.trivial
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e69de29bb2d
diff --git a/tests/lib/__init__.py b/tests/lib/__init__.py
index 0e9cd9c9233..5e179d40c2d 100644
--- a/tests/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/tests/lib/__init__.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 
 
 def assert_paths_equal(actual, expected):
-    os.path.normpath(actual) == os.path.normpath(expected)
+    assert os.path.normpath(actual) == os.path.normpath(expected)
 
 
 def path_to_url(path):