Let me emphasize your point about companies trying to blackmail Canada. This goes back to the early 1970s with the Manitoba government, when they were introducing public payment for drugs. They were saying that if there is a generic on the market, they would cover only the cost of the generic. The brand-name drug companies' response was that if Manitoba did that, they wouldn't put any money into Manitoba. That's the pattern they've followed over a long period of time.
As far as compulsory licensing goes, in fact, that was a possibility. When they introduced the legislation early in the pandemic—I believe in April of 2020—they allowed for compulsory licensing for products that would treat COVID. However, that expired at the end of September 2020, and it was never used.
Compulsory licensing as a way of bringing in drugs at lower prices is certainly a possibility, although the American government and the brand-name drug companies would probably go nuclear if we tried to do that.