Fact File: Carney’s NATO comments misconstrued online as declaration of war

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/01/2026 (243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Multiple social media posts in the past week claimed that Prime Minister Mark Carney had said Canada would “go to war” with the United States if it attempted a forceful takeover of Greenland. Some of the posts cited comments Carney made at a press conference in Beijing last week as the source for their claims. However, Carney’s comments did not mention war. He referred to Canada’s commitment to uphold its NATO obligations, including Article 5, which states that an armed attack against one NATO member is an attack against all members. Triggering Article 5 is not an automatic declaration of war, a NATO expert says.

THE CLAIM

“Canada just declared war on the U.S. if the U.S. attacks Greenland,” reads the caption on a Jan. 16 TikTok video with more than 899,000 views.

Multiple posts on Facebook claimed Prime Minister Mark Carney said “Canada will go to war” with the United States to defend Greenland, should U.S. President Donald Trump follow through on threats to seize the Danish territory by force.

On X, several posts, including one by Russian state-sponsored media outlet RT, claimed Canada had announced a war or would “declare war” on the United States over Greenland.

“Mark Carney clarifies he’ll go to war with America to defend Greenland,” reads the text overlaid on a photo of Carney posted to Instagram. 

The post includes a clip of Carney from a press conference he gave in Beijing on Jan. 16.

“The future of Greenland is a decision for Greenland and for the Kingdom of Denmark. We are NATO partners with Denmark, and so our full partnership stands. Our obligations on Article 5, Article 2 of NATO stand. And we stand full square behind those,” Carney says in the clip.

THE FACTS
 

Carney made the comments seen in the clip on Instagram, as the full video from the press conference shows. 

However, at no point did Carney mention “war” or a declaration of war, as some social media posts claimed. 

His comments came in response to a question about what Canada is doing to protect Greenland. 

Carney referred to Canada’s commitment to upholding its NATO obligations under the treaty that it and 31 other NATO member countries agreed to when they joined the alliance. 

NATO’s Article 2 states that countries should co-operate by strengthening their “free institutions” and encouraging economic collaboration. 

Article 5 is an agreement between members that an armed attack against one country “shall be considered an attack against them all.”

NATO members are obligated to respond in the event of an attack on another member country and take action as necessary, “including the use of armed force.”

However, Benjamin Zyla, a global studies professor at the University of Ottawa, stresses that a deployment of soldiers is not a given. “Even if NATO invokes Article 5, that does not automatically or necessarily mean that Canada would send troops,” Zyla told The Canadian Press in an email Tuesday. 

Zyla said there are several possibilities for a potential Canadian response to the invocation of Article 5 — which has only been applied once in NATO’s 76-year history in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Canada could choose to provide logistical support, or send aircraft and navy reinforcements, he said. 

“I do not see a scenario where Canada would send troops that would fight against the U.S.,” Zyla said. 

When NATO invoked Article 5 in response to 9/11, the alliance agreed to eight measures to help the United States, including more intelligence-sharing and the provision of aircraft and naval forces. There was no formal declaration of war.

After weeks of saying the United States would do whatever it takes to get control of Greenland, Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday that he wants full ownership of the Danish territory but would not use force to obtain it.

“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be frankly unstoppable. But, I won’t do that. OK?” Trump said.

“I don’t have to use force,” he added. “I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”

COULD CANADA SEND TROOPS TO GREENLAND?

The Globe and Mail and CBC, citing unnamed sources, reported Canada has contingency plans to send a small number of troops to Greenland.

When asked directly about Canadian troops joining Danish sovereignty military exercises in Greenland, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Tuesday in Davos that Canada takes part in NATO exercises regularly.

She said any other military exercises would be up to the defence minister and the chief of the defence staff.

“The next few days will show whether the alliance will be able and willing to deploy a NATO mission to Greenland,” Zyla said. 

He said the move could send a strong signal to the United States that “enough is enough.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 21, 2026.

— With files from David Baxter in Ottawa