NARRATIVE: Trump speaks 37 minutes without saying Canada, Carney leaves the UN without a Washington meeting

Thirty-seven minutes

Tuesday, September 22, the Assembly hall

On Tuesday, September 22, Donald Trump spoke for 37 minutes before the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Mark Carney was in the hall. The Associated Press confirms it. He attended the speech.

The president named Iran. Venezuela. Cuba. Mexico. He named the UN, to criticize it.

He did not name Canada.

Thirty-seven minutes, and not once Canada.

A year earlier, at the same podium, Trump had spoken for nearly an hour, CTV recalls. The teleprompter had stopped working. This year, he was shorter.

A name that does not come

Everyone knows the moment from school. Roll call. The hand ready to go up. You wait for your name, ears straining.

The name did not come. Not at the start. Not at the end.

This narrative covers seven days. Saturday to Saturday. It contains no meeting between Ottawa and Washington.

It contains many other meetings. That contrast is what I date, day by day, with what the documents say. Nothing more.

A neighbour who says nothing says more than one who shouts.

Saturday, on the Hill

A direct question

On Saturday, September 19, Carney comes out of a caucus retreat on Parliament Hill.

A question is waiting for him. Will he meet Trump in New York?

“We’ll meet with lots of leaders in New York,” he answers, according to CTV News.

No yes. No no.

New York would still mark a first. The two men have not been face to face since trade talks broke down, CTV recalls.

Mexico, and sovereignty

The week before, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country was getting closer to a deal with Trump.

What does that mean for Canada? “It means we’re a sovereign country,” Carney answers, according to CTV.

The answer is short. It sets the tone for the week.

At home, the mood is not for rapprochement. In Toronto, a coffee shop crossed the Americano off its menu to serve a “Canadiano,” The Associated Press reports.

Last month, Carney recalled his negotiators from Washington. In his account, the Americans had added unacceptable demands at the eleventh hour. Washington, for its part, blames Canada for the impasse, CTV writes.

Two versions. No date for what comes next.

Two accounts of the failure, and no calendar.

Sunday, Saint-Pierre

A French archipelago

On Sunday, September 20, Carney meets Emmanuel Macron in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, according to his office’s readout.

They talk about space. Defence. Energy. Artificial intelligence. Wildfires.

They also talk about Ukraine, European security, the Arctic.

They agree to build an alliance for the future between Canada and the European Union.

The timing is not neutral. The week before, Ursula von der Leyen had opened the door to associate membership in the Union for Canada, The Canadian Press recalls.

See you in New York

The readout ends with a promise. The two leaders will continue their discussions in New York, during the General Assembly.

So a meeting with Paris is written in advance.

A meeting with Washington is not.

The week begins on a scrap of France set off the coast of Newfoundland. Then New York.

Before New York, the week runs through Europe.

Monday, nothing confirmed

The officials’ briefing

Before the trip, senior officials briefed reporters. Carney will meet leaders and business people.

They are asked whether he will see Trump. Or even someone from his administration.

“Nothing is confirmed right now,” one of them answers, speaking on condition of anonymity, according to CTV News.

The Assembly’s theme this year is about restoring trust. The United States, for its part, has withdrawn from the World Health Organization and from UNESCO, The Canadian Press recalls.

In a statement, Carney says Canada intends to help shape the international order being remade. He promises to sit down with partners old and new.

An airport delay

On Monday, September 21, Canada launches a coalition of Partners for Multilateralism. With Australia, Barbados, Brazil, the European Union, India and Kenya, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Carney is not there. An air traffic control mess at New York airports held him up, The Associated Press reports.

I read this week as an absence chosen on each side of the border. Not a falling-out. An absence.

Trump will not name Canada. Carney will not seek out Washington. Each will speak elsewhere. No meeting. No refusal either.

Nothing confirmed that Monday, except the distance.

Tuesday, the speech

The Western Hemisphere

Trump’s speech has a centre. The Western Hemisphere.

He talked about Venezuela, whose oil he claims as spoils, according to CBC. He talked about Iran, which he threatens with annihilation. He talked about Cuba, which he calls a failed state. He talked about the UN, which he criticizes harshly. He talked about the International Criminal Court, which he accuses of acting beyond all control, CBC reports.

The Cuban delegation walked out.

For Shannon O’Neil, of the Council on Foreign Relations, the message prepares the United States to assert its control, if not its dominance, over the hemisphere, according to CBC. Trump also predicted a deal with Iran right after the November 3 midterm elections.

About Russia’s war on Ukraine, he said little. He argued for an end. With no new peace initiative, CBC writes. Kyiv expects more than wishes.

About Canada, he said nothing.

Mexico named

The southern neighbour got its sentence. Trump called Mexico the epicentre of cartel violence.

The northern neighbour got nothing. No reproach. No threat. No word.

CBC reads it as proof. The president has bigger concerns than his trade war with Canada.

A delegation walking out can be seen. CBC filmed it. Silence cannot be filmed.

Mexico got its sentence. Canada did not get one.

Tuesday, the other schedule

Amman, Santiago, Luanda

Meanwhile, Carney fills his own schedule.

He met King Abdullah II of Jordan. He met Chile’s president, José Antonio Kast. He met Angola’s president, João Lourenço. He met a minister from the United Arab Emirates, according to The Associated Press.

A year earlier, at the same Assembly, Canada recognized the State of Palestine. Trump said at the time that the move could hurt a trade deal, The Canadian Press recalls.

This year, he co-chaired with the United Kingdom and France a meeting on the two-state solution. He announced C$100 million in aid for Palestine, according to his office.

Two parallel schedules

The same day, Trump and members of his administration met Volodymyr Zelensky, CBC reports. The president was also due to see Gulf leaders.

Two schedules. One building. No shared slot.

I do not know whether anyone asked for a meeting, on either side. No document I have read says so.

What the documents say is the list. The list does not include Washington. One list. No American name.

Two schedules, one hallway, no shared slot.

“Those whom you don’t normally see”

The AP’s question

On Tuesday, at a news conference at the UN, Carney is asked whether he has interacted with Trump or his administration.

He answers that he sees this big meeting as a chance to “meet those whom you don’t normally see,” The Associated Press reports.

That is not a yes. It is not a no. It is a preference. He does not say he refuses to see Trump. He says he prefers to see the others.

He adds that partners work with Canada because it is predictable, reliable, principled. In a world that is anything but.

An answer without a name

He talks about values-based realism. About calibrated alliances. About taking the world as it is.

The words United States are not in the answer. Nor is the word Trump.

Political scientist Srdjan Vucetic, of the University of Ottawa, judges that the message resonates, especially in the global North, according to The Associated Press.

On Tuesday, two men avoided naming each other in the same building. One at the podium. The other at the press microphone.

And yet the two countries have never had so much to say to each other.

He named those you don’t see, not the one you avoid.

What the silence costs

72.5% of exports

Here is where the fact that unsettles this narrative belongs.

The United States received 72.5% of Canada’s merchandise exports in 2025. That is the government’s annual trade report, cited by TIME.

No coalition of middle powers replaces that customer in a week. Or in a year.

Carney aims to double trade outside the United States within ten years, according to The Associated Press. Ten years. The silence is paid for right away.

Trade talks ended in acrimony last month, The Canadian Press writes. The smaller of the two pays the most.

The word hostile

Washington is not silent everywhere. The week before, Trump said that Canada joining the European Union as an associate member could be a “hostile act,” The Canadian Press reports.

He is silent at the podium. He talks elsewhere.

And the absence of a meeting is not a signed rupture. No document closes the door. None opens it.

And yet Canada’s silence has its critics too. Canadian critics, cited without names by The Canadian Press, fault Ottawa for not denouncing American coercion. They point to the sanctions targeting a Canadian judge for her work at the International Criminal Court.

That is true, and it does not change this. For seven days, nobody crossed the hallway.

Silence costs the smaller of the two more.

Wednesday, the oceans

The 12:19 p.m. release

On Wednesday, September 23, at 12:19 p.m., the Prime Minister’s Office publishes the wrap-up of the visit.

The release names the coalition for multilateralism. The release names the OceanEye alliance, co-chaired with Ursula von der Leyen. The release names the Our Ocean conference, in Halifax, on May 10 and 11, 2027.

It announces more than C$16 million for global biosecurity.

Three voices are quoted in it. Carney, Anand, and Ambassador David Lametti. The world can count on Canada, the prime minister says in it.

Three countries named

On the sidelines of the Assembly, the office writes, the prime minister met leaders from Chile, Angola and Jordan. To diversify Canada’s diplomatic, trade and security relationships.

Diversify. The verb states the policy.

The release does not mention the United States. Not once. Not a line. Not a footnote.

After his speech on the oceans, Carney heads back to Canada, according to The Associated Press.

The wrap-up names three countries. It leaves out the only neighbour.

The longest border

Not even a reproach

Back to Tuesday. That is where the week tips.

Canada, The Associated Press writes, is the country on the other side of the world’s longest international border. And now on the other end of a deepening trade war.

That country did not get a word in 37 minutes. Not a syllable. It was neither target, nor example, nor partner.

An adversary gets named. An ally gets named. A neighbour you no longer name…

A neighbour erased from the speech

There is an indifference heavier than a threat. It makes no headlines. It cannot be counted.

Canada learned it could be absent from an American speech on the Western Hemisphere. Canada, which takes up nearly all of its north.

I admit this absence troubled me more than an insult would have. An insult can be rebutted. A silence, you do not know whom to answer. It is the silence of a kitchen after an argument: nobody talks, everybody listens.

And yet Canada, too, chose not to name.

No longer being named is another way of being targeted.

Saturday, the green marble

Second year in a row

On Saturday, September 26, late in the afternoon, Minister Anita Anand takes the green marble podium, according to The Canadian Press.

For the second year in a row, she speaks in Carney’s place. Her officials cite his schedule.

“We are facing a rupture, not a transition,” she says. Great powers, in her view, are turning their backs on economic cooperation.

Canada’s goal? Greater strategic autonomy.

“The tide does not wait,” she also says. An image drawn from her childhood in Nova Scotia, according to UN News.

The United States, twice

She named Ukraine, for a just and lasting peace. She named the Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, according to The Canadian Press. She named Iran, the main threat to peace in its region, according to UN News.

The United States appears twice in her text. To thank the countries contributing to the force against the gangs in Haiti, the United States among them. To welcome the security agreement among Greenland, Denmark and the United States.

Then one sentence, with no name. “We can no longer afford to be overly reliant on any one partner.”

Canada is working with a coalition to strengthen Ukraine, and will co-host a conference on detained Ukrainian children, according to the text published by Global Affairs Canada.

She defended the International Criminal Court, while Washington seeks to dismantle it, according to The Canadian Press.

Everyone understood which partner.

She named Washington twice, and never as an addressee.

A silence in two voices

What the week reveals

Seven days. Leaders from three continents. A caucus retreat. A French island. A coalition. A speech. Three bilateral meetings. A release. A green marble podium.

Not one meeting with the American administration in the published documents.

What the week reveals is not a rupture. It is a habit taking shape. We no longer name each other. We go around each other.

A year ago, on October 7, 2025, Trump welcomed Carney to the White House, a photo published by CTV recalls. A year later, the same city no longer brings them together.

The middle powers

For nearly a year, Carney has been calling on middle powers to unite. Around shared interests, and sometimes shared values, rather than shared institutions, The Canadian Press writes.

In Davos, he summed up the idea: “if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” The Associated Press recalls.

This week, he applied the formula. He met those Washington does not look at. He left Washington to talk to the others.

Canada has 41 million people, The Associated Press notes. Enough to carry weight. Not enough to be heard when the neighbour does not want to listen.

It is a strategy. It is also an admission. The line between the two capitals has gone slack. A phone that does not ring, you end up hearing it.

Two countries keeping quiet do not make peace. They make a habit.

Seven days without a meeting

The neighbour’s name

The narrative begins with a name that does not come. It ends with a name spoken twice, for other causes.

In between, a documented week. No scene to invent. You only have to read the lists.

The neighbour no longer says our name. We no longer say its name when it comes to us.

Next year, the same hall

Are we ready for the relationship with the United States to boil down, for years, to this mutual silence?

Next year, the same hall, the same podium. We will know then whether the silence was a pause or a policy.

Thirty-seven minutes without Canada, seven days without a meeting.

Sources:

Primary Sources:

• Prime Minister’s Office — wrap-up of the General Assembly visit, September 23, 2026
• Global Affairs Canada — Anita Anand’s address to the General Assembly, September 26, 2026
• Associated Press (ABC News) — Carney at the UN and the speech without Canada, September 23, 2026

Secondary Sources:

• CBC News, Mike Crawley — Trump’s 37-minute speech, September 22, 2026
• CTV News (CP24) — no meeting with Washington confirmed, September 21, 2026
• UN News — Canada and the rupture of the global order, September 26, 2026