The Canadian government quietly approved tens of millions of dollars in extra spending for a contract it held with the controversial American tech company Palantir.

Records from the IJF’s Open By Default database reveal the federal government made over a dozen amendments to a secret contract it held with Palantir’s Canadian subsidiary to provide services to an elite unit of the Canadian military.

Altogether, those amendments caused the value of the contract — which was internally flagged as “not for public disclosure” — to rise from $14.4 million when it was first signed in March 2020 to about $44.4 million as of October 2025.

The Department of National Defence told the IJF that as of last month they had spent $46.8 million on the contract.

Palantir, headquartered in Miami, is a data analytics and mining company that has long marketed its services to military and law enforcement as tools for surveillance, intelligence gathering and analysis.

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.

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.

"Instead of analysts having to independently sift through multiple information databases to collate and assess information, the program integrates and collates existing data from various information storage mechanisms, allowing analysts to assess vast amounts of data and provide information visualization, with information control measures," department spokesperson Kened Sadiku said.

Last year, technology publication The Logic was first to reveal that the company had signed the roughly $14.4 million deal with the Canadian military in March 2020.

The IJF’s records show the federal government amended that original agreement 12 times, including by exercising a $5.8 million option to extend the contract in March 2025.

That sole-source contract was for the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, a unit of the Canadian military whose duties include counter-terrorism, hostage rescue and foreign and domestic special operations.

The records obtained by the IJF, which were generated by public servants in response to questions from a Conservative MP, say that Canadian Special Operations Forces Command determined “that Palantir was the only supplier that could meet the key requirement” of the contract.

"At this time of the contract, there were few companies worldwide that had developed this type of software technology," Sadiku said in his statement.

The IJF’s records include an email sent to Debbie McCosham, then chief of staff to the deputy minister of defence. That email said that some of the amendments to the Palantir contract were for “additional software support, specialized services support, travel and living expenses and goods.”

Sadiku said those amendments included "an increase in the number of authorized CAF users for the platform, and travel expenses for Palantir staff to provide support outside the National Capital Region."

Sadiku declined to say why the contract had not been made public, citing national security reasons.

He also defended the government's choice to do business with Palantir despite criticism of the company.

"Palantir software is widely used by Canada’s allies and The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, supporting interoperability and the evaluation of proven capabilities," Sadiku said.

The Toronto Star reported this month that the Department of Defence also signed a second, $3.7 million contract with Palantir’s Canadian subsidiary in June 2025. That contract, details of which were also released in response to an MP’s questions, was for a “data integration and analytics platform subscription.”

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