We saw a surprising headline: “Canada’s Worries Grow Over Puerto Rico’s Statehood Talks.” The story was at USNewsper.com, which appears to be a news site and not a satirical publication.
They claim that MP Alexandra Mendes of Quebec is accusing President Trump of “rhetorical acts of war” against Canada. Surprisingly, Mendes is not saying this because Trump has doubled down on his desire to make Canada a state and won’t promise not to invade our neighbors to the north. Instead, according to USNewsper, Mendes feels threatened by all this talk about statehood for Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico’s becoming a state would, the story says, “lead to a substantial shift in North America’s geopolitical landscape. She emphasizes that such a change could alter the balance of power between Canada and the United States.”
They quote the MP, who they claim said, “the idea of Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state is not just an abstract concept; it’s a real possibility with concrete implications.” This is certainly true, but since Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States for 126 years, we question what effect statehood would have on Canada.
“The controversy surrounding Puerto Rico’s potential statehood has been fueled by comments from high-ranking officials in the Trump administration. These officials have suggested that Puerto Rico could eventually join the United States as a full-fledged state,” the story continues. “While some view this move as a way to strengthen ties between the island territory and the mainland, others perceive it as a challenge to Canada’s status quo.”
The question is, should we believe that the Member from Quebec is worried about Puerto Rico statehood and what it would do to Canada’s economy and political position in the Americas? Before we trust this story, we should ask some more questions.
Consider the source
They are not open about the ownership of the site, which we find disturbing, and BeSpacific claims that the site’s content is produced by AI in Lithuania. Scam Detector gives it a low trust score. Our glance at the site showed too many headlines with exclamation points for us to think they’re legit. So their reporting is not trustworthy.
They have been online since December 2022. Everyone starts their website sometime, but with so many other trusted news source which have been around for decades or even centuries, we should not accept USNewsper as the only source of the story. We should check and see whether the New York Times, The Washington Post, or the Wall Street Journal might also be reporting on these concerns.
They are not.
Check the facts
We were able to find evidence that Alexandra Mendes exists and is the MP from Quebec. We were not able to find any statements from her about Puerto Rico, and could not find any of the quotes from the supposed statement online.
There really aren’t any other facts in the story. That is, they don’t link to a statement, say where the statement was published, or report any time or place in which the comments were made if they were not in fact an official statement. We’d say the failure to cite or link to a source makes the story untrustworthy.
We found a number of official statements posted on Facebook, but the one on Puerto Rico was not among them.
Does it fit with our previous knowledge?
We need to watch out for confirmation bias, but we can also consider whether we have ever previously heard Canadian politicians expressing fear of Puerto Rico. Have we, in fact, ever seen any comments on Puerto Rico from Alexandra Mendes?
There is one way that this story does fit with our previous knowledge. If it is in fact an AI-generated story, we know that generative AI tools can “hallucinate” — that is, make up stories out of the whole cloth with no basis in fact at all.
It really looks as though that is what’s going on here.
We strongly recommend that you take these steps before you believe what you read online. At PR51st, we make sure to provide sources for our claims, links to facts and statements, and honest reporting.
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