A Vancouver-based AI firm, Caseway, which builds tools for legal and defence applications, says it will no longer pursue work with the U.S. government amid escalating trade tensions and repeated comments from U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting Canada should become the “51st state.” CEO Al Vigier framed the decision as a matter of principle and security, saying he is uncomfortable helping U.S. AI needs while Washington is threatening Canada. The company walked away from a significant commercial opportunity - one of eight presentation slots at a major industry conference where firms can secure investor rounds in the $50-million to $100-million range - and is redirecting its business toward Canadian defence contracts and markets in Europe and Taiwan.
The choice highlights a wider structural problem: Canada’s AI ecosystem depends heavily on U.S. capital, cloud infrastructure and customers, which complicates efforts to keep sensitive government and defence work under domestic control. University of Toronto policy expert Sean Mullin warned that reliance on foreign clouds and models raises real risks for top‑secret operations. Caseway’s pivot underscores how difficult decoupling is in practice, because replacing not only funding but trusted compute and partnerships is required for firms that must balance commercial scale with national-security and political alignment.
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