The problem was not in Cuba: the internet worked just fine, with full access to Canadian sites. Shockingly, the problem emanated from America. Both received an identical message: “You are not authorized to access this site because you are located in a country subject to U.S. trade restrictions.”

Why are Canadian scholars prevented from conducting normal business at their own universities because of U.S. trade sanctions — which have been imposed against Cuba for 65 years, and variously against more than 20 other countries?

Both universities have outsourced their learning management systems to a Utah-based company, Instructure. Its Canvas platform (with several brand names, including Quercus  at the University of Toronto) is used by more than 100 Canadian universities and other public institutions.

Because these universities use IT from a U.S. company that kowtows to Trump’s authoritarian impulses, their normal work is disrupted and constrained. This extension of U.S. foreign policy into the internal workings of Canadian public institutions is scandalous.

Canadians rightly worry about America’s use of economic force to squeeze other countries, including erstwhile allies like Canada or Denmark. But what’s chilling in this case is that Canadians are being sanctioned in interacting with their own institutions.

Why would Canadian universities tolerate such restrictions on the normal work of their students and staff? Many administrators likely haven’t even contemplated the vulnerability their outsourcing creates. Perhaps they think the risk of foreign interference is a legitimate tradeoff for software they find useful and cost-effective. They are wrong.

I contacted the two universities for explanation. They acknowledged the problem, and offered IT assistance to staff and students to design workarounds (perhaps using VPNs to disguise locations). But such acquiescence legitimizes the U.S. sanctions, and exposes students and staff to U.S. foreign policy that becomes more aggressive every week.

The University of Toronto’s response was doubly inadequate, stating “our digital services are designed for use from Canada, where the vast majority of our community members work and learn.”

In other words, to avoid U.S. censorship of your scholarship, just stay home! That’s hardly how to build a global university.

As U.S. foreign policy becomes more aggressive and dangerous, university administrators must insulate their institutions from collateral damage. Best would be to cancel their contracts with U.S. platforms, and buy alternatives (there are good made-in-Canada options).

Government must also protect Canadian data and research from U.S. digital aggression. Ottawa already has powers under the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act (FEMA, first implemented in 1985 under Brian Mulroney) to block the application of foreign trade sanctions against businesses (even subsidiaries of foreign firms) operating in Canada.

Competition law is another potential remedy: it should prohibit the introduction of foreign sanctions into domestic contracts. And provincial education ministers (who, after all, approve university budgets) should also intervene.

This is a particular but shocking example of a broader problem: our vulnerability to America’s increasing willingness to use every lever, including technology, to dominate other countries.

For the sake of fundamental academic freedom, our universities should resist this threat — not surrender to it.

Correction — Jan. 17, 2026:

This opinion column has been updated to correct the spelling of Quercus at the University of Toronto. ”