The Government of the United States, through its head of state
4 October 2026
Coercion against Canada’s sovereignty
Dossier
Finding
The Government of the United States has declared the aim that Canada cease to exist as a sovereign state, and has named economic coercion as the means to that aim.
Conduct of record
The declaration of 7 January 2025 that Canada “should be a state”, with “economic force” named as the means in answer to the question of military force. The demand that Canada become the fifty-first state, maintained through 2025. The effect: by September 2026 the Prime Minister of Canada prepares the country against United States military action as an “extreme tail risk”. Trade measures as such are not entered. The entry rests on the declared purpose.
Law engaged
Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States, General Assembly resolution 2625 (XXV), 1970:
No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights and to secure from it advantages of any kind.
… armed intervention and all other forms of interference or attempted threats against the personality of the State or against its political, economic and cultural elements, are in violation of international law.
Charter of the United Nations, Article 2(1): the sovereign equality of all Members.