Custom post type (with parent-child relationship) singular page with pagination

I managed to find a solution to my problem. Paste the following code into your functions.php file:

function my_redirect_canonical($redirect_url) {
    if (is_singular('auction')) {
        $redirect_url = false;
    }
    return $redirect_url;
}
add_filter('redirect_canonical', 'my_redirect_canonical');

Can someone please tell me what the redirect_canonical filter does? I’ve read some people recommending against touching it.

Thanks