[1.7.x] Fixed #23651 -- Isolated non-existent fixture tests

Previous versions of the tests were buggy, as initial_data.json
did exist and the test wasn't failing. It was finally failing on
Python 3.4.2.
Thanks Raphaël Hertzog for the report (and Debian bug #765117
contributors).
Backport of 7a893ee7 from master.