No, they explicitly never said that. This is the origin:

https://www.canonrumors.com/inside-the-canon-eos-1d-c

Quote:

I was told by someone at Canon that they would “bring the might of its legal team” to anyone that attempts to modify at the software level, the features of an EOS-1 camera body

/Quote

"Someone"'s name was never revealed.

ML was never mentioned directly.*

ML team was never contacted by any Canon official or anyone speaking in their regard.

* Of course it is logical to assume there is a connection to ML.