The Source Canada Newsletter, Monday June 15, 2026

On Friday, Anthropic abruptly disabled access for everyone to its latest Fable and Mythos models, a direct result of a US government directive. The directive applies to “any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States.” Given how difficult it would be to determine which users were foreign nationals, Anthropic made the logical decision to turn its latest models off for everyone.

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5
The US government has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States.

Digital sovereignty is no longer an abstract thought exercise for Canadians. Those “what if” scenarios of a foreign power disabling critical technology, including software updates for the F-35 fighter, now have a real-world example.

For Canadians wondering how, and when, threats to digital sovereignty will materialize, there are three things worth thinking about:

  1. It did not take an Act of Congress or a lengthy Supreme Court battle to force one of the world's leading AI companies to hit the off switch. It was easy, which means the likelihood of it happening again will increase, not decrease.
  2. Canada is America's closest neighbour and closest ally. It should feel distinctly uncomfortable to be in the “foreign national” category, alongside Russia and China.
  3. It is conceivable, and even likely, that in the future Canada will not be barred from critical AI technologies but will be given a degraded version. Better than others, but not as good as Americans.

Having domestic alternatives, not only in AI but in other critical areas of our economy, is essential. Not only to ensure the supply of technology we rely on, but to have better leverage in the future negotiations, which are coming, over who gets access to what.

Highlighted Deals

  • MDA Space, Calian, and Kepler win RADARSAT+ ground-system contracts. The Canadian Space Agency awarded $804K each to Brampton's MDA Space, Ottawa's Calian, and Toronto's Kepler ($2.4M total) to build the ground systems for Canada's next-gen Earth-observation satellites. BetaKit, Jun 12
  • Quebec partners with Cohere to test AI in the public service. This is the province's first AI agreement with Cohere. Québec.ca, Jun 9

Counter Signal

  • Quebec's $2.5B Epic Systems rollout begins. Millions of patient files will be on a US-owned platform. The Logic, Jun 8

Capital

  • Koho hits unicorn status at $1.33B. Abu Dhabi's Mubadala led the $130M Series E. The company continues its path toward a federal banking license. BetaKit, Jun 11
  • Ikea invests in Toronto's NS/TX Industries. Strategic corporate buyer backs the food startup's US$10.5M round. The Logic, Jun 12

Defence

  • Canada and the NATO Innovation Fund. A year after committing, Canada is still outside the ~US$1B fund and considering joining. The Logic, Jun 8
  • DND opens the $166M Valcartier research complex. 80+ new labs; opened June 8. canada.ca, Jun 10

Policy

  • CCI's Carbonneau: public buying is a hidden growth engine. Procurement is 12 to 14 percent of GDP. BetaKit, Jun 8
  • Memo to Carney: trade diversification needs banks to take bigger risks. The Logic, Jun 9