@oneilllj, you made it sound like your people knew some basic LaTeX. With some guidance, they could probably learn the parts they need fairly quickly.

You can use the equation editor and then switch to directly edit LaTeX when it becomes necessary.

When I last taught College Algebra, the way I got around the Canvas limitation was to give students a page with templates for different size matrices that they could copy/paste and then edit using the Direct Edit mode.

You can also use Wiris MathType (formerly Design Science MathType). It has an integration with Canvas, but it's commercial. I stopped using it when Wiris bought Design Science and started charging a subscription instead of owning the software. It's $61.95 per user/per year with a 20% discount for academics. That's an individual license. You can integrate into Canvas starting at $1.06 per student/per year (minimum purchase required).

There's also CodeCogs. It has an editor that supports a lot more then the Canvas one. For a matrix, you generate a template that you can then fill in manually. You then copy/paste that code into Canvas. 

When I used MathType for Word (pre-Wiris), it was more visual and showed what it would look like. Their demo makes it look almost identical to the older MathType, so it probably still is. You could then copy/paste it as LaTeX into whatever you needed. I cannot speak to how it has changed. I think CodeCogs menu is too busy for normal users in Canvas and they would have trouble finding what they want for all the options that are available. They do have a free version of up to 1000 equations per day (probably more of an issue if you link to their website)

There are other packages out there similar to MathType or CodeCogs; those are just the first two that came to mind.

Word's equation editor is more powerful than Canvas', but still not as powerful as LaTeX.

The decision of whether to include Word documents directly or try to put it into Canvas is not a clear-cut one. Canvas is probably more accessible, but they keep on shrinking the font size so things become unreadable. At least you can use the MathJax zoom feature. Word is arguably easier to use. Since I know enough LaTeX to be dangerous, Word's equation editor (anything with a mouse) actually slows me down.