Prime Minister Mark Carney’s frank assessment at Davos of the U.S. rupture of the rules-based global order signals a shift in Canada’s foreign policy.
Carney criticized the American attacks on international organizations and laws, and called for middle powers such as Canada to fight economic intimidation from both rivals and allies — a reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s coercion through tariffs. He urged countries to build the institutions and agreements that “we claim to believe in, rather than waiting for the old order to be restored.”
However, if Carney is serious about his plan for Canada to be “principled in our commitment to fundamental values [and] sovereignty,” immediate action is needed on several fronts.
One could be Canada’s unequivocal public support for Kimberly Prost, a Canadian judge at the International Criminal Court, and a clear condemnation of the U.S. sanctions imposed on her because in 2020 she and other judges authorized an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, including by the U.S. military.
Those sanctions mean Prost cannot travel to the United States and is shut out of most of the international banking system. All her credit cards were cancelled and she lost access to her Apple, Google and Amazon accounts, which underscores the global reach of U.S. power. Prost describes the U.S. sanctions as “an attack on the independence of the judiciary and the International Criminal Court’s independence as an institution.”
The Canadian government has been relatively silent on the U.S. attacks on the court and its sanctions against Prost.
Human rights advocates argue that Ottawa “must come off the sidelines of international justice” and defend the ICC. Publicly condemning U.S. attacks on the court and reiterating our support for its operations would be a welcome step in expressing Canada’s fundamental values. The ICC is a critical cornerstone of justice and human rights — one that Canada helped establish.
Canada should also take decisive steps to shore up its digital sovereignty. In his speech, Carney said this about artificial intelligence: “We’re co-operating with like-minded democracies to ensure that we won’t ultimately be forced to choose between hegemons and hyperscalers.”
Forging a path outside U.S. tech giants and out of reach of the U.S. government is an ambitious and vital task. But Carney’s AI strategy is not realizing those goals, nor has it strengthened digital sovereignty.
A case in point: in December 2025, Microsoft promised to invest more than $7.5 billion over the next two years to build “new digital and AI infrastructure” in Canada. This deal with Microsoft — a hyperscaler of the type Carney proposes to avoid — includes a company pledge that it will “stand up to defend” Canadian digital sovereignty.
However, this pledge is toothless. A company executive admitted at a Senate hearing in France last July that U.S. tech companies cannot protect data from the U.S. government and will comply with its demands regardless of laws in other countries. As I’ve written previously, when Canada works with U.S. tech companies, digital sovereignty depends on the whims of the U.S. government – which has often demonstrated contempt for the courts.
It’s also essential that we forge coalitions with like-minded democracies, as Carney argues. But again, his rhetoric is not matching his actions.
In October 2025, Canada signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Arab Emirates to strengthen collaboration in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. The agreement is part of a $70-billion trade deal Canada signed in November 2025. While this deal will likely further develop Canada’s AI industry, the UAE is not a democracy.
Instead of striking deals with Microsoft and the UAE, Canada needs to take decisive steps against hegemons — both corporate and state — and make clear what principles underlie federal government policies. A solid step would be for the government to make clear how it understands digital sovereignty because analysts characterize its current approach as “vague.”
An alternative to Carney’s “all-in on AI” policy that appears designed to roll out chatbots throughout the public service, among other things, could be the development of sovereign substitutes to dominant U.S. models of email and messaging, video conferencing, payment and consumer-oriented cloud storage tools.
Canada could join various European efforts to develop non-American versions of critical digital infrastructure. As I’ve written previously, European academics have crafted the EuroStack initiative — a strategy that evaluates Europe’s dependence on U.S. technologies and sets out plans for establishing sovereign alternatives across interconnected layers of technologies from semi-conductors and artificial intelligence to cloud computing.
France, for example, is creating a domestic video-conferencing tool called Visio that is designed to keep data, infrastructure and control over legal rules within France. The Netherlands, meanwhile, is developing an open-source alternative to Microsoft products, with a plan to transition the Dutch government away from that company’s services.
Following his successful Davos speech, Carney is understandably basking in international praise. Forging the path for middle powers and building the necessary institutions and agreements will take a whole-of-government effort and deep investment. Canadians must watch to see how his actions match his rhetoric.
