Canada spotlights AI and defence

Canada is using a burst of attention around artificial intelligence, defence software and lunar technology to argue that some of its most strategic tech is built at home. (ourcommons.ca) One signal came from Taleeb Noormohamed, the Liberal member of Parliament for Vancouver Granville, who has served as parliamentary secretary to the minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation since June 4, 2025. Another came from renewed attention on Mila, the Montreal artificial intelligence institute founded by Yoshua Bengio, which says it now brings together more than 140 professors across Université de Montréal, McGill University, Polytechnique Montréal and HEC Montréal. (ourcommons.ca, mila.quebec) Mila’s recent announcements show the institution still expanding its research and industry ties in 2026, including a C$36 million grant from the Quebec government announced on February 27 and partnerships with Mozilla on March 26 and Sweden’s Research Institutes of Sweden on April 8. Those deals put concrete dates and dollars behind the argument that Canada is trying to keep top artificial intelligence researchers from moving to larger United States firms. (mila.quebec) The defence side of the story is less about chatbots than about embedded software, the code buried inside vehicles, ships and industrial systems. QNX, the Ottawa-based software business owned by BlackBerry, sells a real-time operating system designed for machines that cannot afford to freeze or miss a timing deadline. (qnx.com, qnx.com) QNX says its software is used in security and defence as well as automotive, industrial and medical systems, and its current product pages emphasize reliability, fault tolerance and memory protection. In plain terms, that is the kind of software stack navies and other defence contractors buy when a delayed response can damage equipment or endanger crews. (qnx.com, qnx.com) The space piece runs through Artemis, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration program that returned astronauts to lunar flight this month with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on Artemis II. Canada said on April 10 that Hansen and the rest of the crew splashed down in the Pacific after nearly 10 days in Orion, and the Canadian Space Agency said the mission connected Canadians “from coast to coast to coast.” (canada.ca, asc-csa.gc.ca) That matters for industry because Artemis is not only a prestige mission but also a procurement pipeline. MDA Space said on March 24 that its Canadarm3 work for the Canadian Space Agency continues despite National Aeronautics and Space Administration changes around Gateway, and that the robotics architecture can be adapted for low Earth orbit, cislunar space or the lunar surface. (newswire.ca) Another Canadian company now drawing attention is Advantech Wireless, which Baylin Technologies said supplied high-power amplifier systems that helped maintain Artemis II communications across distances of up to two million kilometres. Baylin said that recognition came as the company looked to apply space communications technology to remote terrestrial markets, including the Arctic. (newswire.ca, bnnbloomberg.ca) The Arctic angle fits a wider federal push. CTV reported in March that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government announced a C$35 billion plan to “defend, build, and transform” Canada’s Arctic, creating a clearer domestic market for communications, surveillance and other dual-use systems that can serve both civilian and military needs. (bnnbloomberg.ca) Put together, the message from Ottawa, Montreal and Canada’s industrial base is that artificial intelligence talent, defence-grade software and space hardware are being framed as one national technology story. After Artemis II, Canada has a fresh public example to point to while it tries to turn research labs and niche software into exportable strategic industries. (canada.ca, mila.quebec, qnx.com)