Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 15/5/2025; Author: Nina Đuranović
Two months ago, former central bank governor Mark Carney was sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada.
As is often the case at the beginning of a political figure’s mandate, the public quickly assigns them various labels, and the new Canadian Prime Minister was no exception.
A photograph of Carney (archived) from a public event began circulating on Facebook, accompanied by the claim that he greeted attendees with a Nazi salute.
“New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a Nazi salute at a rally. Carney is a former Bank of Canada chief, opposes joining the United States, and supports Ukraine, like his predecessor.”
The photograph in question was taken on April 27 during a campaign event ahead of the federal elections (archived). Mark Carney delivered a speech to attendees in Edmonton, and both photographs and video footage of the event are publicly available.
“Liberal leader Mark Carney addressed the crowd during a campaign stop in Edmonton, Alberta, on Sunday,” reads the caption of the photo published by the French media outlet Le Devoir (archived).
Upon reviewing the video footage of Carney’s speech (archived), it is evident that the photograph allegedly showing the Canadian Prime Minister performing a “Sieg Heil!” gesture is, in fact, just a moment of natural gesturing during his address.
By selectively extracting a frame from the footage of Carney’s speech, the impression was created that he gave a Nazi salute.
The image—a screenshot from the video—was presented in a misleading manner. During his speech, the Prime Minister raised his left hand multiple times: first, pointing a finger toward the audience and then raising his open hand, which was then equated with the Nazi gesture.
Although born in Fort Smith, Carney grew up in Edmonton (archived), Alberta, where he spent his childhood and youth.
The alleged “salute” occurred precisely at the moment when Carney recognized friends in the audience.
“First of all, I want to say hello to Blaine and Trinity O’Coyne, who are sitting over there—or rather, not sitting, but standing. High school friends, lifelong friends. I played hockey with Blaine. To me, that’s Edmonton. When you make a friend in Edmonton, you have a friend for life,” the Canadian Prime Minister said.
Since the photograph was taken out of context during a public speech and bears no connection to any Nazi salute, we rate these claims as manipulation of facts.
The “Manipulation of Facts” rating is given to a media report that uses known and accurate facts but interprets them in a deceptive manner. These reports generally employ accurate information to draw incorrect conclusions or claims, leading media consumers to draw conclusions that differ from the actual meaning of the presented facts.
