![[FACT-CHECK] - Canada is not a corporation owned by the United States](https://mediaconnect.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/62e897dd4c2b82ba8f471b7051becd9571bb0e17-ipad.jpg)
“We already own Canada… Trump is just ushering it in,” reads the caption of a January 8, 2025 Instagram reel.
The clip appears to show a screenshot of the entry for the “company” of Canada in an SEC database. Similar posts appeared across Facebook, X and TikTok, claiming the visual proved “the corporation of Canada is owned by the United States Corporation.”
The claims come amid pushback from Canadian officials to a 25 percent tariff proposed by Trump, who has repeatedly joked that he would make Canada the 51st state, going so far as to say he would use “economic force.” While some say the hints should not be laughed off, experts also told media that a peaceful annexation of Canada would be practically infeasible, given the constitutional hurdles involved in incorporating the territory into the United States.
The screenshot does show a genuine entry on the SEC website, but claims that it means Canada is a business owned by the United States are false.
A reverse image search reveals the widely-viewed screenshot comes from Canada’s registration (archived here) in the SEC Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) database, other examples of which are seen below.
Michael Dambra an associate professor of accounting and law at the University at Buffalo School of Management (archived here) said that any entity, including foreign governments, must register with the SEC in order to issue debt securities in the United States (archived here).
Dambra, in a January 9 email, pointed to a $3 billion bond issued by Canada in April 2024 found in the EDGAR database (archived here), saying it showed “if anything, US investors are giving money to Canada.”
The Department of Finance Canada (DOF) also confirmed it was registered as a foreign government — not a corporation — with the SEC, in order to sell securities in international financial markets.
“To support the issuance of securities in foreign markets and meet the needs of US and international investors, Canada takes part in the US securities market and files investor information with the Securities and Exchange Commission,” said Marie-France Faucher, an official with the DOF, in a January 10 email.
Faucher pointed out that other sovereign countries such as Japan, Italy and Brazil are also registered under the same foreign government category in the EDGAR database (archived here).
Read more of AFP’s reporting on misinformation in Canada here.
Author(s): Gwen Roley / AFP Canada
Originally published here.
