Meet Cohere – Palantir’s Canada AI Partner for Mass Surveillance on Canadian Citizens & Businesses

Commentary by Dan Fournier, published Tuesday, May 12, 2026 at 6:20 EDT.

This post is segmented as follows:

• A Short Backgrounder on AI-led Mass Surveillance

• A Short Backgrounder on Palantir

• Meet Canada’s Cohere – Palantir’s Partner

• More on Cohere & their ties to the Canadian Government, Foreign Governments, Intelligence, and the Military

• Final Thoughts – Particularly with the AI & Harms Bills that are currently being drafted

A Short Backgrounder on AI-led Mass Surveillance

In the first half of my previous article, I focused on the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) that is currently being developed not only in Canada, but around the world.

This Digital Public Infrastructure is multi-faceted and comprises key elements that will make up the ‘digital control grid’ that [is currently and] will be used to monitor the online behaviours and actions of all citizens.

Digital IDs, Age Verification schemes, and eventual deployment of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) will all be interconnected and used to enable this global digital control grid.

While my article largely focused on Canada, interoperable DPI is being developed by nations around the world which means that governments have interconnected systems to share data.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is key to these DPI control grid systems because they leverage the power of the technology to conduct large-scale mass surveillance of hundreds of millions of individuals with lightning speed and ease.

Such surveillance covers all aspects of daily life including, but not limited to:

• your online behaviours and activities (e.g., the websites you visit, your browsing history, social media usage and comments);
  

• your financial transactions (online, credit card payments, banking transactions, crypto transactions);
  

• your travels (geolocation tracking through your cell phone, airline travel, hotel stays, car rentals, travel partners);
  

• your interactions with government agencies (through email and with data stored on Personal Information Banks or PIBs).

Why should this concern you?

Easy. Because all this information is being collected on you and is shared not only with government departments and agencies, but also (importantly) with their private partners.

And much of this data and information sharing happens without your knowledge and consent.

This not only causes concerns for possible data and privacy breaches of your own personal information on the servers of these private entities (which can be shared and even sold to third parties – without your knowledge or consent), but also how this information can be used against you.

While many Canadians or citizens will say something like “well, I’m not a criminal and have nothing to hide,” they should more seriously consider and contemplate the matter. I already mentioned possible security breaches of your own personal data – which could further entail something like having your identity stolen or your data being used to illegally access your banking, social media, and other accounts.

Other important considerations and impacts have to do with your personal privacy as well as your rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion.

And with the sheer amount of private partners governments are sharing your data with, you should be even more concerned. Why? Because this is not only occurring with partners domestically, but also internationally given inter-governmental agreements (as outlined in my previous article and further below in this post) made and interoperability among their systems.

Just one example of how this can impact you has to do with international travel. If you are deemed a dissident (or too critical of the government) or a “person of interest”, you may experience friction and unwanted detainment and questioning at border crossings, or not even be permitted to travel to certain countries (no fly blacklists).

There are many more dark scenarios I could describe, but I will leave at that for now.

A Short Backgrounder on Palantir

Entire books can be written about Palantir Technologies – a U.S.-based private firm that is concerned mainly with leveraging AI and Big Data for mass surveillance and military programs.

Palantir was founded by billionaire tech magnates Peter Thiel and Alex Karp who have strong ties to both the United States Government and the Israeli Government and their respective militaries and intelligence agencies.

Palantir is front-and-centre in helping to develop and maintain the database of “domestic terrorists,” along with ICE’s AI predictive tool called Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement (ELITE).

This is but a tiny sampling of the agreements and contracts they have with themselves with the U.S. Government.

Just a few examples from the list of U.S. Government agencies: we have that of Palantir’s contractual ties with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which is focused on monitoring tax cheats and ‘high value audits’, as well as the USDA deal to “safeguard the food supply.”

The scope and number of these contracts are huge, as are the billions of dollars awarded to the Silicon Valley giant.

Many of those contracts are concerned with what is called “pre-crime” surveillance and predictive policing which involve the use of extensive online and social media monitoring.

Palantir has developed many in-house systems such as:

• Gotham (designed for defense and intelligence agencies, details here);
  

• Foundry (geared towards their commercial customers);
  

• Apollo; and
  

• Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) to database and query the hoards of data and information collected on citizens, businesses, and organisations.

The CIA-funded and backed outfit is also embedded with governments around the world such as with the United Kingdom (see also here, here, and here), Germany, Israel (see also here, here, here, and here), France, New Zealand, Australia, and Poland with significant investments related to military and intelligence operations, policing and “national security” (read mass surveillance of citizens).

Germany already uses Palantir’s Gotham in five of its 16 federal states (including Bavaria – which means all states can have access) to permit German Police and German spy agencies to “combat criminality and terrorism” (cough cough).

Much more can be said about Palantir, but I think the above provides a rater telling overview.

Meet Canada’s Cohere – Palantir’s Partner

If you are like me (from a week ago) you’ve probably never heard of a Canadian company called Cohere.

Founded in 2019, Cohere is a Venture Capital-backed Canada-based tech company that focuses on AI products including the development of Large Language Models (LLMs) – which are used to power AI chatbot systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

It is headquartered in Toronto and has offices in Montreal, New York City, San Francisco, London, Paris, and Seoul.

Their mission statement reads as follows:

“Our Mission

We believe AI’s highest purpose is to enhance human wellbeing. We’re committed to realizing that potential by empowering businesses to scale innovation, boost productivity, and drive progress that reaches everyone.”

Okay now we can get to their [arguable] notion that AI is to “enhance human wellbeing” claim, but for now notice that it principally mentions “empowering businesses” and not even the [Canadian Federal] Government which it actually does a considerable extent of business with.

So, an initial point which is to be retained here is that, in general, Cohere is a private company serving other companies.

I will get into Cohere’s ties to the Canadian Government in the next section (as it pertains to AI-based mass surveillance), but for now let’s look at some of its partnerships and contracts with intelligence and defense agencies – most notably with Palantir.

A documented partnership exists between Cohere and Palantir which sees the former deploy its AI models through the latter’s [aforementioned] Foundry system.

As per a TechCrunch article, Cohere has been working with Palantir since [at least] late 2024 and Cohere’s models are already in use by various unnamed Palantir customers, according to information discussed in a video posted by Palantir. Though the video on YouTube is now set to private, an archived copy is available on the Web Archive:

The November 2024 presentation was given by Cohere’s engineer Billy Trend (who previously worked at Palantir) at DevCon1 (Palantir’s first developer conference) showing how their application integrates into Palantir’s Foundry system.

Recall that Foundry is Palantir’s software system designed to analyse large amounts of data for decision making for its commercial customers.

Screenshot of Cohere’s November 2024 presentation by engineer Billy Trend (previously employed at Palantir) at DevCon1 (Palantir’s first developer conference) showing how their application integrates into Palantir’s Foundry system. Though it is difficult to read, notice the “PALANTIR-CM-DEMOS” explorer module titled on the top left-hand side.

As the TechCrunch article notes, Cohere’s engineer Billy Trend previously worked at Palantir. “This is why I’m really excited about working with Palantir, and we’re going to give you a bunch of details about exactly how we’re able to serve their customers,” Trend said during the presentation.

Put more simply, Billy Trend is stating that Cohere will be enabling Palantir to “serve their customers.”

While it remains unclear whether Cohere will merely share their AI models with Palantir, who is to say that data from their databases (which could possibly include citizens’ information) won’t be shared with Palantir’s customers?

Though Palantir is a publicly-traded company, it’s list of customers is not easily accessible but undoubtedly includes governments, government agencies, and defense contractors (see their blog and investor relations sites to find out more about some of their past and current customers and projects).

So, the bigger question here is exactly what data and information will Cohere be sharing with Palantir’s customers? Will it include that of Canadian citizens and businesses?

Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing what will be shared with them.

And with the contracts that Cohere now has with the Canadian Government (see the relevant section below), we have no way of knowing whether our data and information will ultimately be shared with Palantir or not.

When TechCrunch asked Cohere if it could specify whether its AI is being used for military or intelligence-related use cases and what Cohere’s general policy is toward these kinds of deployments, the Canadian AI outfit declined to comment.

Though there are likely to be confidentiality agreements at play, this certainly ought to be regarded as a red flag given their contracts with the Canadian Government (as described in the next section of this post).

Moreover, this shows that when a private company is contracted to handle personal and private data and information on customers (citizens and businesses), they cannot be fully trusted since they are largely shielded from scrutiny and oversight.

Though some safeguards are in place to protect customer data and information (e.g, with PIPEDA – links here, here, and here; and for Quebec consult Law 25, see also here), the broader rules and requirements for this are rather opaque.

As a Canadian myself, I certainly DO NOT CONSENT that Cohere collect, use, or share any of my data shared with them by the Canadian Government with Palantir or any other third party (author note: let this statement serve as a formal, legal, warning).

How about you?

More on Cohere & their ties to the Canadian Government, Foreign Governments, Intelligence, and the Military

Though mostly unknown, Cohere has significant ties to the Canadian Government, foreign governments, the Intelligence Community IC), and the Military. They also have ties to Big Tech, but we will leave most of that aspect aside to keep this investigation brief.

Ties to the Canadian Government

As per an August of 2025 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Cohere has partnered with the Government of Canada to “to transform the public sector with sovereign AI.”

“Our co-founder and CEO Aidan Gomez said, “We’re proud to deepen our partnership with the Canadian government, providing secure and sovereign AI solutions to transform public services. As a Canadian-headquartered company, we believe maintaining global AI leadership across public and private sectors is a national imperative. AI will supercharge economic productivity, fortify national security, and future-proof Canada’s competitiveness. That’s why building this technology and developing the next generation of AI talent right here in Canada is essential.”

The Canadian artificial intelligence company stated that it would be providing “secure and sovereign AI solutions to transform public services.”

The company also states that they are building the technology to “fortify national security,” among other reasons.

And according to a related news release from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), Cohere Inc. will help build Canada’s AI ecosystem and internal AI services. Needless to say, that is quite the mandate.

Moreover, the Government of Canada is “establishing responsible AI standards on the international stage.”

“There’s no better place to leverage the innovative technology of artificial intelligence than here in our own backyard, and no better use than in the service of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. By working with Canadian AI innovators like Cohere, we’re laying the groundwork for a more efficient, effective and productive public service while helping ensure that Canada remains competitive in this new digital era,” stated Evan Solomon, the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation.

Aidan Gomez, Cohere’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), expressed pride in “providing secure and sovereign AI solutions to transform public services” and that “maintaining global AI leadership across public and private sectors” is a national imperative.

So, there is definitely a clear intent to integrate Cohere’s AI solutions across the government’s public services sector as well as with private sector players. While transparency is somewhat more accessible with the former, it remains a challenge with the latter.

Months earlier, Cohere had already secured a $240 million contract to “strengthen the Canadian AI ecosystem.”

As per a The Logic article from last year, Cohere will use $240 million in federal financing to help pay for a $725 million project to buy AI compute at a new Canadian data centre that opened in 2025. Moreover, a [Canadian] senior government official said the choice of data centre operator was up to Cohere; and there is concern that this new “multi-billion-dollar” Canadian facility data centre would be housed in the United States by CoreWeave, an American AI cloud-computing company, until Cohere can secure the infrastructure within Canadian borders.

An article from The Globe and Mail outlined additional concerns [with link and emphasis added]:

“All of the value and wealth effects of the $240-million look to be captured by a U.S. firm but paid for by Canadians,” said Jim Hinton, an intellectual property lawyer and senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. “Simply buying compute capacity doesn’t make Canada richer or better at generating, retaining, and commercializing AI.”

The Government of Canada is investing heavily in the AI sector, having already committed over $4.4 billion into various projects – some of which I have outlined in my previous article.

This is amidst a series of strategic alliances that Canada has made with other nations such as India, Germany (see also here and here), Australia, and Finland, an AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program, a large-scale AI supercomputing facility, and a Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

There are many components and moving parts to this new, radical, Canadian AI ecosystem, including its various alliances and private-sector partnerships.

This makes it rather challenging to really know how much of it is really geared towards competitivity and improving government services versus developing and enabling an AI-based surveillance system. There are certainly arguments to be made both ways.

But the one that concerns us here is the AI-based surveillance system angle and related Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) that is unquestionably currently being assembled, along with related legislation that is on the table and coming down the pike (see the last section of this post on this).

Returning to Cohere, though the following list of key collaborators doesn’t necessarily align with government officials per se, they nonetheless are significant given that they are leaders in the AI sector:

• Geoffrey Hinton, “AI Godfather” (I mentioned in my previous article) is both an early investor in Cohere and a mentor to its three co-founders (Aidan Gomez, Nick Frosst, and Ivan Zhang)

  • Hinton, Gomez, and Frost previously worked together at Google
    

• Joëlle Pineau, Chief AI Officer at Cohere who previously was the global vice president of Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR), now known as AI at Meta, until May 2025.
  

• Patrick Pichette, a Cohere initial investor and Board Member who once served as the Senior Vice President and the Chief Financial Officer (CTO) of Google from 2008 until 2015.

The key takeaway here is that is that we are talking about connections to two of the largest tech players in AI, namely Google and Meta. Together, these tech giants (actually Alphabet Inc. who owns Google and most of its outfits) and Meta (who owns Facebook) user bases account for 4.3 billion users (which could be much higher if we include all users of Google’s Android-based cell phones).

Cohere’s other corporate partners such as Microsoft, AWS (Amazon) and Oracle must also be considered as leaders in their respective positions in the sector.

Lastly, Accenture and McKinsey & Company – both with questionable pasts – figure among their partners.

Ties to the Foreign Governments

Just a few week ago in April of 2026, it was announced that Cohere was acquiring Aleph Alpha, an artificial intelligence Germany. The value of the newly formed combined company would be estimated to be around $20 billion.

What is significant about this deal is that even though Cohere and Aleph Alpha are private firms, it was the governments of both countries who helped orchestrate it.

“We need to make sure that the power does not rest in the hands of a few dominant players,” said Canada’s AI Minister Evan Solomon at a news conference in Berlin, where he was joined by the chief executives of Cohere and Aleph Alpha, and Germany’s digital minister Karsten Wildberger. Their stated concern is that American companies such as OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Google are building increasingly powerful systems. Yet, ironically, it is worth mentioning that Cohere’s core team (Aidan Gomez, Nick Frosst) is comprised of former employees of Google. Hello? Solomon also brought up “national security” with regards to the alliance.

According to another report on the deal, Cohere will retain its name and operate dual headquarters in Canada and Germany, with Heidelberg becoming a second global headquarters.

So much for that sovereignty concern, eh?

Just two months earlier on the heels of the Munich Security Conference, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) had announced that Canada and Germany [were to] sign [an] AI joint declaration and launch Sovereign Technology Alliance. The focus being to “strengthen cooperation among trusted partners on advanced technologies” which aligns perfectly with what I outlined in a previous section of this post.

Put more simply, Canada wants to ensure that its AI endeavours align with those of Germany and the broader European Union (EU). “Through the Sovereign Technology Alliance, Canada and Germany will deepen coordination with trusted partners to strengthen sovereign AI capacity and reduce strategic technology dependencies,” the news release states. This inherently assures interoperability for their AI mass surveillance systems.

Furthermore, the release states that the ministers “also discussed opportunities to collaborate with leading research organizations advancing safe-by-design AI systems, including Canada’s LawZero, founded by Turing Prize winner Professor Yoshua Bengio. The joint declaration of intent identifies this work as a potential area for future cooperation.”

I wrote about LawZero and its founder Yoshua Bengio in my previous article, warning about how they will be deceptively used to “establish trust” among the broader public with their [laughable] project called “Scientist AI.”

Cohere also has ties to other governments such as with the United Kingdom, Japan (Fujistsu), and South Korea (LG). But I think that the one with Germany as detailed above give you a good idea about what kind of AI network they are working on.

Are we starting to see how the pieces of this AI puzzle fit nicely together?

Ties to the Intelligence Community (IC)

But wait. It’s doesn’t end there.

According to documents obtained by The Logic – which describes itself as “Canada’s Business and Tech Newsroom,” Cohere had a contract with Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE).

The CSE is better known as Canada’s cyber intelligence agency, responsible for foreign signals intelligence, cyber operations, and cyber security, working with industry and academia to protect Canadians from cyber threats.

According to the article, a memo dated October 1, 2024, states that the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) had a contract for Cohere’s technology.

Moreover, the briefing note had been prepared for then-prime minister Justin Trudeau ahead of a meeting with the firm’s CEO Aidan Gomez. The Logic obtained the memo via an access to information request. They added:

“The memo, parts of which are redacted, does not include further details about the nature of the work. Cohere’s government contract comes as Ottawa says it will significantly increase defence spending, including on AI, and as the firm is making a push into the public sector, with a focus on security. Federal lobbying records show Cohere executives communicated with Samantha McDonald, CSE’s deputy chief of innovative business strategy and research development, in July and August 2024.”

The Logic stated that Cohere declined to comment on the matter, and that CSE spokesperson Janny Bender Asselin said the agency does not comment on its contracts, citing national security.

They also mentioned that Toronto-based Cohere is making a push into the government sector, with a major focus on security and that it had recently partnered with two major software suppliers to the U.S. Defense Department and hired a former Canadian Armed Forces infantry officer to head its global public sector business. The software suppliers to the U.S. Defense Department were not stated, but certainly could include Palantir since they are an official supplier. The name of the former Canadian Armed Forces officer who became employed as Cohere’s to head its “global public sector business” (whatever that means/implies) was not mentioned likely due to redacted information in the memo obtained.

Ties to the Military

Thales Canada (a division of Thales – a French multinational defense company) which serves as a key partner to the Canadian Armed Forces and Cohere have signed a partnership agreement (archived here) for advanced AI solutions for naval and maritime in-service support. Cohere’s AI will help French defence contractor service Royal Canadian Navy fleets.

With the Cohere partnership, Thales will use agentic AI—like Cohere’s platform North—to enhance efficiency and operational readiness “while maintaining the highest standards of security and ethical deployment.”

Cohere’s North is a workspace platform that performs tasks when users create custom AI agents through text prompts (see more on North here and here).

It is unclear whether Cohere has additional contracts with the Canadian Military. But with their ties to Palantir in the U.S. who is a major contractor to the U.S. Military suggests that they likely do.

Amidst its panoply of contracts and funds raised, it should be noted that Cohere’s valuation is at least $7 billion (as of September 2025) with over 350 employees (as of June 2024).

Final Thoughts – Particularly with the AI & Harms Bills that are currently being drafted

This post would be rather incomplete if we do not understand and incorporate the legislative context under which Cohere and other AI and DPI partners are being contracted with for mass surveillance of Canadian citizens and businesses.

Of course our lovely governments always giftwrap issues with benevolent sounding pretexts and labels – and this is very much the case with AI-based surveillance.

Accordingly, there are [at least] five bills that are related to this matter – three existing, and two that have yet to be tabled but are currently being drafted:

• Current: Bill C-8 (An Act respecting cyber security, amending the Telecommunications Act and making consequential amendments to other Acts)
  

• Current: Bill C-9 (An Act to amend the Criminal Code)
  

• Current: Bill C-22 (An Act respecting lawful access)
  

• Upcoming: AI Bill
  

• Upcoming: Harms Bill (Replacement for C-63)

As I’ve been reporting for more than four years on my Substack, the globalists aligned with UN Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are dead set on enslaving us further through their digital control grid. And to do so they absolutely need us to acquiesce to a Digital ID. And once member nations have Digital ID (like India) it becomes much easier to control its citizens – financially, their online behaviours, etc., etc.

But to justify a Digital ID, they need a strong pretext which lately is stated as protecting children online. Sure, there are genuine concerns about child safety online, but this pretext is largely a ruse to get us on board.

Apart from harms children are subjected to, they also want to “eliminate” other so-called harms online.

Both of these, they think, can be magically addressed via age verification methods to know who is accessing certain websites or online contents and who is posting what on social media. We know that this is pure fallacy, but they stubbornly stick with their hollow, mentally deranged and absurd, rationale.

So, our lovely politicians here in Canada have their own means to obtain what they want – or should I dare say what their globalist masters instruct them to do. And these means are often accomplished by introducing various legislative bills such as those listed atop of this section.

Bill C-8 (An Act respecting cyber security, amending the Telecommunications Act and making consequential amendments to other Acts) seeks the following:

• It would essentially give Cabinet Ministers the ability to boot Canadians off the internet under the guise of “threat to national cyber security.” They could order Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to cut internet access or a cell phone service provider to do the same.

• Terms in the text of the bill such as “threat,” “misinformation,” “false information,” and “hate” are not clearly defined.

• Watch the following video with Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms lawyer John Carpay explaining its (and other bills) dangers.

So, we can already see the enormous power grab this bill alone seeks to accomplish. Moreover, we see how the bill in its current form doesn’t specifically define “hate” as in online “hate speech.” The same goes for “threat” and “misinformation.” Usually in such bills, a designated minister would be assigned to interpret these. But we can see that the whole enterprise is an absolutely foolish pursuit that would be nearly impossible to implement, yet alone enforce.

Next, we have Bill C-9 (An Act to amend the Criminal Code) which would repeal previous defences enshrined in the Criminal Code [specifically 319(3)(b) and 319(3.1)(b)] which currently allows for quoting from religious texts such as the Bible, Quran, etc. In other words, this bill has a lot to do with curtailing religious freedoms by censoring speech (whether online or in the real world).

Next, we have Current: Bill C-22 (An Act respecting lawful access) which would essentially mandate mass metadata surveillance of Canadians. It seeks to invade individuals’ right to privacy by tracking their whereabouts and obtaining their online metadata without their knowledge, consent, or a legal warrant (see related articles here, here, and here). The bill basically helps to build a backdoor to your cell phone and electronic devices.

Now, even more in the context of this post, I mentioned two other bills which have yet to be written, namely a Harms Bill and an AI Bill.

Note that it is difficult to know exactly what these bills will be called or whether they may even be bundled into a single one. We could easily see one called an “Internet Safety Bill” or a “Privacy and Data Bill” since they like to make them benevolent-sounding. Time will tell.

There previously was Bill C-27 which focused on both privacy and AI, but it failed.

Whatever it may specifically be called, there has already been a lot of talk of the upcoming Harms Bill which would complement the aforementioned Bill C-8.

Last summer, Canadian Justice Minister Sean Fraser – who once served as the Vice-President of the United Nations Association in Canada – said the Federal Government plans to take a “fresh” look at its online harms legislation over the summer but it’s not clear yet exactly what the bill will look like when it is reintroduced. At the time, Fraser said he expects “significant engagement” on the matter with Steven Guilbeault (then Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture) and Evan Solomon, but it will be determined later which minister will take the lead on it.

A year later, it is still unclear which ministers may be drafting the Harms and AI bills. But the strongest contenders must be Evan Solomon for the AI Bill (or Privacy and Data Bill) and the current Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, Marc Miller, for the Harms Bill.

While the reader was already introduced to our AI Minister Evan Solomon, they may not be familiar with Marc Miller.

Partial profile of Marc Miller, the current Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture at Heritage Canada. Source: Canada.ca.

Miller caused quite a controversy just a few months ago when he advocated for the passage of Bill C-15 which permits any minister to ignore almost any federal law enacted since 1867 (or exempt a person or company of their choosing from them). Yes, you read that correctly. This bill – which has actually now passed (on March 26, 2026) and become law does permit such unfathomable actions.

You can learn more about C-15 here, here, here, and here. That our Members of Parliament (MPs) and Senators have agreed to this insanity is incontrovertibly shameful, but not surprising given who they really serve.

C-15 has been described as the “Powers of a King” bill given the insane amount of power and privilege it grants to federal ministers, including shielding them and their actions from public scrutiny and potential prosecution.

So, suppose that a particular federal minister is assigned a role in a new Harms Bill to oversee affairs related to “harm,” “hate,” or related matters, under C-15 he or she could actually ignore other existing federal laws pertaining to privacy protections.

Many other related dangers could easily ensue given the egregiously heinous nature of this new law and its potential for abuse and lack of public scrutiny and accountability.

It should also be observed here that should Canadian Heritage be integral to the process of drafting this new Harms Bill (which it most likely is), that would be a very grave cause for concern.

I say this because Canadian Heritage was one of the parties concerned with consulting and drafting the much dreaded and hated Bill C-63 (Online Harms Act) which failed back in 2024 largely (and thankfully) due to pushback from Canadians.

Back in March of 2024, I exposed everything egregious about this bill and who were the actual parties involved in its inception:

The issues and red flags I wrote about are too numerous to rehash here, but you can have a look to see how Canadian Heritage and other actors such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), NewsGuard (a so-called fact-checking outfit in the U.S. with ties to the U.S. Military) and Canada’s Public Policy Forum (PPF) all had a hand in crafting Bill C-63 (Online Harms Act).

Looking at this past disaster, we have to wonder which external parties are currently helping draft the new Harms Bill.

As for the upcoming AI Bill (or Privacy and Data Bill), look for it to be framed as some kind of super piece of legislation that will protect your identity, data, privacy, and online safety while it actually seeks to do the opposite – exploit them.

Moreover, look for this bill to be pitched as panacea that will “protect Canadians” from malicious use of AI chatbots and “BIG BAD” American AI giants like OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. As proof of this, look no further than AI Minister Evan Solomon playing “good cop” versus CTV News “bad cop” Vassy Kapelos to help shape this narrative. It’s classic textbook Problem-Reaction-Solution theatrics served to Canadians like a five-course meal. Watch and decide for yourself:

I swear, this acting performance was so obvious and badly scripted that I nearly had to get a bucket to vomit in.

The corrupt mainstream media in Canada really do their utmost to suck up to and help advance the agendas and policies of their beloved Liberal Government who pay them handsomely.

Seriously, I often wonder whether these useful idiots ever realise that one day, these systems will be used against themselves and their families. But hey, I bet you anything their short term payouts and rewards are more important to them.

Lastly, look for the bill to push “authoritative” voice and “experts’ such as Yoshua Bengio and Scientist AI, ensuring that the “trust” aspect is well considered and taken care of.

I can see these guys and their ploys coming mile ahead. Can you?

Fierce Lobbying for the upcoming Harms Bill

To further confirm the extent to which these bills are coming full steam ahead, look no further than a May 8^th, 2026, investigative report from the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) called Lobbying heats up in anticipation of Internet safety bill.

The report notes that since the start of 2026, tech companies, civil society groups and non-profits have reported more than 137 communications with federal officials about online harms, even though no bill has even been tabled.

It should come as no surprise that Big Tech firms including Google, Facebook (Meta), and Apple figure among the lobbyists. And Cohere too with its nine lobbying communications.

Chart showing the number of Federal lobbying communications regarding the upcoming online harms legislation. Image source and credit: The Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF).

What these lobbying efforts imply is that Cohere and Big Tech giants want to provide pitch their ideas and/or exert their influence with regards to the contents of the upcoming Harms and AI bills.

This is really nothing new in terms of lobbying, but the sheer number of communications suggests that a lot is at stake here – both in terms of contract dollars and the level of control Big Tech may be able to exert on Canadians. These include issues such as monitoring (and shaping/nudging) online behaviours, mass surveillance, and harvesting personal and private data.

Furthermore, it stands to reason that companies such as Google and Meta are certainly poised to benefit financially from having access to Canadians’ data and information and thus profit from it by selling it to third parties (a practice that has been largely documented with Facebook/Meta, for instance).

What could go wrong?

Wrapping Up

To wrap up, I would recommend keeping an eye out for the upcoming bills and those that are still being assessed. When they surface, scrutinise them for elements which have been brought up in this post.

Though it may appear pointless, contact your MP to express your disagreements with these bills, stating the reasons why.

Always be cognizant that a nationwide Digital ID (like India currently has) is the ultimate goal in Canada. As much as possible, push back on this at every opportunity. Opt-out of the government and private firms’ schemes to collect your biometric data.

Inform yourself about your privacy and data rights, and be more careful about how and what information you share with private companies. If you live in Quebec, read about Law 25 which you can use to instruct private companies to not keep or share your personal private data and information.

Feel free to make complaints to Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada if you feel the need to do so.

Together, we will stop this unwanted and unneeded AI-led mass surveillance machine.

Addendum #1 (2026-05-27) - Information Request documents reveal Canada is building a mammoth AI Data Surveillance Infrastructure through Cohere with Corporate Giants

I made a whole post for this addendum. (click the link to access it)

Addendum #2 (2026-06-02) - Gov’t of Canada – Palantir Secret Contracts

Okay this addenda will really expose the duplicitous nature of the Government of Canada. It exposes how they are not being completely honest and fully transparent in their official responses – even to Questions posed by Parliamentarians.

First though, where does the name Palantir itself come from?

I would like to take this opportunity to show you all what the name Palantir itself signifies; for, the name chosen for this company reveals its very corrupt and evil nature from its inception.

I had already known that Peter Thiel, the founder of Palantir, had chosen the name for his company from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. But this more revealing background tidbit I came across this morning really puts it in perspective [with emphasis added]:

“Peter Thiel draws from a different tradition. His most influential company, Palantir, takes its name directly from Tolkien’s palantíri, the seeing stones of Middle-earth. In Tolkien’s world, the palantíri allow their users to observe distant events, gather intelligence and exercise power across vast distances. They are instruments of extraordinary capability. They are also instruments of corruption.”
...
“Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and infamous non-resident New Zealand citizen, is a well-known Tolkien obsessive. His data analytics and AI surveillance company, Palantir, which counts governments and intelligence agencies among its primary clients, is named directly after the palantíri, the seeing stones of Middle-earth.

In Tolkien’s world, the palantíri are instruments of extraordinary power: they allow their users to see across vast distances, to gather intelligence, to communicate in secret. They are also, in the end, instruments of corruption. Sauron uses them to deceive, manipulate, and dominate. Those who look into them too deeply, including Saruman, are broken by what they see. Gandalf spends the entirety of The Lord of the Rings opposing the concentration of power in a single will.”

There is no mistaking for the purpose of palantíri in Tolkien’s novel, and thus little doubt as to Thiel’s intent of naming his surveillance company after it. In the novel, the palantíri “allow their users to see across vast distances, to gather intelligence, to communicate in secret.” And are used to “deceive, manipulate, and dominate.”

If one examines the scope and nature of Palantir’s activities, one will easily notice the level of secrecy involved along with its questionable practices.

While my base case here may seem far-fetched to some, I have already exhibited some of its attributes in this post and will further expand upon it in this addendum. I will show how this vile modus operandi is at play with the Canadian Government and Palantir and indirectly manifested through its Canadian AI partner Cohere.

Secret Contracts

Though I know that the Government of Canada has had contracts with Palantir (and even Palantir Canada for that matter – which had previously seen a formal investigation by Lobby Canada on the inherent conflicts of interests of its then head David MacNaughton), what has been recently revealed really begins to show the extent of this symbiotic relationship.

As the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF), has recently revealed with their June 1, 2026 article Canadian government spent tens of millions on secret Palantir contract, no less than a dozen amendments have been made to the Government of Canada’s initial $14.4 million contract with Palantir, inflating the partnership north of $44.4 million by October of 2025.

One of the first references from the IJF article reveals information from an ATI request, A-2025-01478 (23 pages, released 2025-06, official link, from National Defense: “Records related to Palantir Technologies or Palantir Canada between 1 April and 9 September 2025”).

The first pages of this release makes reference to Palantir’s Project Maven – a U.S. Pentagon AI platform which is used to, among other things, identify threats and generate recommendations in near real-time (like on battlefields). Maven has been actively used in battle zones including the current war in Iran where it produced thousands of strike options, raising ethical concerns regarding the risk of civilian casualties (as has been the case with Anthropic’s Claude AI in butchering innocent school girls at the Minab elementary school).

Though the partnership between Canada’s [Department of] National Defense and Palantir with respect to such kinds of uses is unclear, it nevertheless raises some important ethical concerns and questions.

Are these the type of systems our Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) ought to be concerning themselves with?

It is difficult to ascertain how the DND is either using or contemplating the use of Maven, given that the first five pages of this ATI release is highly REDACTED and thus not adequately revealing enough to answer the above question.

Notably from this release, however, is what we find on page 20 – A reply letter from S.R. Kelsey, Lieutenant-General and Vice Chief of Defense Staff to Mrs. Cheryl Gallant, a Conservative MP for Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke (Ontario), regarding her official Parliamentary Written Question (Q8) that concerns the government’s use of Palantir.

Kelsey’s response included stating that there existed two contracts between the DND and Palantir for a value of over $15 million, and it further “details the safeguards that were put in place to ensure that Palantir technology was not utilized for unauthorised data mining or analytics.”

Note that in the next subsection below, I will demonstrate how that statement by Kelsey (and similar statements by other government officials) are inherently ill-founded.

But before I do that, let me tie up a few loose ends with regards to this ATI release from the DND.

In it, it states that the Contract Data Management System (CDMS) used to search for records of contractors, including Palantir, “does not currently capture information on subcontractors.”

This is rather notable and significant because it both shields the DND (and their staff) from scrutiny and it serves as an excuse for the department not to conduct their own due diligence on how a said contractor handles data and information it obtains and how it uses them.

Moreover, the DND release conveniently states that section 15.(1) of the Access to Information Act applies to their contracts pertaining to support their “Operations” so as to not disclose related information:

“15 (1) The head of a government institution may refuse to disclose any record requested under this Part that contains information the disclosure of which could reasonably be expected to be injurious to the conduct of international affairs, the defence of Canada or any state allied or associated with Canada or the detection, prevention or suppression of subversive or hostile activities, including, without restricting the generality of the foregoing, any such information”

How convenient. Kinda sounds like that good ‘ol Yankee phrase “for national security purposes,” whatever the heck that means.

Sure there are legitimate cases whereby disclosures need to be redacted; but If you ask me, this is appears to be a cop-out which removes transparency from the equation.

The IJF article further observes:

“The company, which is chaired by American tech billionaire Peter Thiel, has faced recent significant scrutiny for its collaboration with the American Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE, which has used Palantir’s data analytics and surveillance tools as part of an unprecedented and deeply controversial deportation drive.”

In other words, Palantir has been used for civil operations (not just military ones) leveraging its data analytics and surveillance tools on individuals.

In addition, the Department of National Defence told the IJF the contract is for the company’s Gotham software, which it says helps the military manage data.

Gotham serves as a platform to run investigations using siloed data (i.e., data found in many different databases but are essentially conjoined together); Gotham also has integrated Palantir’s Foundry system which means that its commercial clients can [technically] access the data obtained from Gotham.

The problem here, however, is that even though Kelsey states that it “helps the military manage data” we have now way of knowing (due to the lack of transparency) what data is being shared with Palantir and its clients, and whether this data includes some on ordinary Canadian citizens and businesses.

We already know, from my previous reporting, that Canada’s main AI contractor, Cohere, shares data with Palantir with confirmed access from that of all federal Canadian Departments and Agencies.

The IJF article brings raises additional concerns; but for sake of brevity I will leave it at that.

The Federal Minister’s Written Question about Palantir

We must certainly give credit to Cheryl Gallant, a Conservative MP for Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke (Ontario), with regards to her official Parliamentary Written Question (Q8) that concerned the government’s use of Palantir. Here is her question in full which was delivered on May 27, 2025:

It is a very detailed question, but I would like to point out some important parts [with some emphasis added]:

• “(c) what safeguards, if any, does the government have in place to ensure that any Palantir technology used by government entities is not used by Palantir for unauthorized data mining or analytics;”
  

• “(d) which applications of technology, which contained Palantir elements in any way, involved data mining or analytics;“
  

• “(e) for each application in (d), what measures are in place to ensure that the data is secure and safe from threats both internal and external, as well as from hacking?”

These are very important questions.

While the full 95 page response by the government partly addresses some of these concerns, it largely shields itself from the sought scrutiny by the inquisitive Member of Parliament, lacks transparency, and employs duplicitous tactics to avoid answering and addressing the questions as they were stated with their original intent.

I will prove this hereunder.

First, a quick overview of the nature of this response:

• A large part of the response involves pages that list various federal government agencies and how they have “never owned or used any Palantir technology, directly or indirectly.”
  

• Many of these department or agencies are stated to “not have contracts with Palantir.”
  

• And many results also indicate that their “search of records” of the [insert the federal department name] “did not produce any results.”

These kinds of answers are, in my opinion, incomplete, insufficient, and misleading.

For instance, even though Canadian federal departments or agencies may not have contracts with or use Palantir’s systems (directly or indirectly), the fact of the matter is that it is clearly affirmed that Cohere – Canada’s main AI partner – does indeed have a contractual relationship with the Government of Canada and that this private firm can share data on Canadian individuals and businesses with Palantir (without our knowledge or consent).

I mentioned earlier in relation to the DND Kelsey’s response letter which stated that the Contract Data Management System (CDMS) used to search for records of contractors, including Palantir, “does not currently capture information on subcontractors.”

What this statement by the DND’s Vice Chief of Defense Staff means is that (even with their Contract Data Management System) they have no way of knowing (or are not told) whether Palantir (or any other firstly directed contractor) has information about their subcontractors.

This reminds me of an earlier media request I had made to the DND regarding how members of our Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) were training Neo-Nazi soldiers in the Ukraine and that they “do not proactively examine the backgrounds of those they train.” How convenient.

I think this kind of attitude or approach is extremely reckless and negligent.

The Member of Parliament expressed a concern (which I think many Canadians would share) about safeguards to ensure for unauthorized data mining or analytics as well as the possibility of our data being hacked.

Whether it is our DND – or any other federal department or agency for that matter – that holds such a careless approach with regards to these security concerns is troubling to say the least.

The are supposed to serve Canadian individuals and businesses, and, accordingly, have a professional, ethical, and moral duty and responsibility to ensure our security.

At present, and with this kind of prevalent attitude and nonchalantness, they are not. They are negligent in their duties.

Let me further cross-highlight this point with that of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada’s federal law enforcement agency.

On page 79 of the PDF release it is stated the following [with emphasis added in red underlining]:

Firstly, they state that they have never used Palantir’s hardware, software, or other technology. I find this highly unlikely; but since I cannot adequately verify the validity of that statement, I digress and yield my assumption away.

But from the other parts highlighted above, you can easily see the cop-out here on the part of the RCMP.

“Prime contractors may subcontract work and when they do, they are responsible for the subcontractors,” the RCMP confirms. So, for instance, Cohere can easily be considered a “prime contractor” since it is the principal firm providing AI services to the Government of Canada (that has been officially stated as shown per my previous reporting). And, as per what the RCMP is stating, it is Cohere that would be responsible for their “subcontractors” – one of which is Palantir.

In my opinion, it appears that the RCMP is using this lingo to distance and shield itself from any misuse of data or data breaches (including hacking) that may result on behalf of the prime contractor (in this instance Cohere), its subcontractor (Palantir, among others), and any “other technology” used.

From a legal and accountability standpoint, they certainly may be protecting themselves. But that doesn’t remove them from their professional duty in this respect; part of their mission is stated as follows:

“Federal Policing executes its mission to protect Canada, its people and its interests against serious and complex threats with a vision of being a global leader in safety and security. Through its Federal Policing mandate, the RCMP:

• safeguards Canada from the threats of serious and organized crime, financial crime, cybercrime and criminal activity related to national security”

Getting your personal data and information hacked by a nefarious party who obtained it from the databases or servers of subcontractors would certainly fall into the scope of their stated mission to protect the people of Canada, no?

If such data breaches do occur and cause material or financial harm, who will be held accountable and responsible? Who would pay for damages incurred? Who would investigate the matter?

Personally, I think that this kind of cop-out by the RCMP represents gross negligence or at the very least creates the potential for it.

On another front, there is mention of Canada’s very important department called Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) which has an official partnership with Cohere, as I previously reported on, through which they are “exploring commercial opportunities across the AI ecosystem,” which includes AI LLMs “across the GC” (GC means the Government of Canada).

On page 57 of the release, Mélanie Joly’s – Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions – official response states that ISED (among other federal department) “have never owned, used, or awarded contracts for Palantir hardware, software or other technologies since January 1, 2016.”

Once more, we have the same problematic and duplicitous kind of statement. Sure, ISED may not have awarded contracts for Palantir directly, but they have a contractual relationship indirectly through Cohere (also back to 2024) since this firm has systems directly integrated with those of Palantir, as I previously reported on.

Overall, this release by authorities from the Canadian government brings forth a lot to be questioned, leaving much to be further scrutinised and contemplated.

Moreover, using these kind of cop-out tactics to rid themselves of any sort of accountability exhibits their gross negligence and failure to properly address valid concerns held by our own MPs and Canadians alike.

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