Does a viral clip show Canada's PM Mark Carney announcing phasing out "all vehicles manufactured before 2000 due to safety and emission standards"? No, that's not true: The video reused the footage of his tariff-related speech while replacing the authentic sound. The audio track was likely to have been generated by AI.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on May 4, 2025. It opened:
Elections have consequences Canada.
The entry shared a video that appeared to show Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney saying:
Effective June 1st, all vehicles manufactured before 2000 will be gradually phased off Canadian roads due to safety and emission standards. Noncompliant window tints, including rear windows, are now prohibited. Drivers will have a 14-day grace period to install approved replacements. Lifts and their levels on trucks must be taken off for not only the owners' safety but for the people around. It doesn't make sense to have a truck jacked in the air. These will be taken very seriously...
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The video displayed a watermark pointing to the TikTok account that initially posted it but both the post and the account appeared to have been deleted. That account was labeled as:
AI-generated.
Two AI detectors -- InVid (archived here) and DeepFake-o-meter (archived here) -- found signs of AI-generated voice in the clip:
(Source: InVid screenshot by Lead Stories)
(Source: DeepFake-o-meter screenshot by Lead Stories)
The posts falsely attributing words about old cars to Carney reused the video from his March 27, 2025, speech (archived here) about Canada's response to the U.S. tariffs. During the 34-minute address, he said nothing about phasing out cars manufactured before 2000, didn't mention "noncompliant window tint" and did not discuss "truck jacked in the air".
In April 2025, Carney, the Leader of the Liberal Party, won a snap election (archived here), remaining Canada's Prime Minister (archived here), which is the role in which he replaced his predecessor, Justin Trudeau.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Canada are here.
