APOCS-2 subsea cable deliberately cut (December 2024)

According to CBC and CTV, Bell's subsea fibre-optic cable linking Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to Newfoundland's west coast was severed on 24 December 2024, the second such break in under a year, following a cut on 4 January 2024. The roughly 140-kilometre line, running from Dingwall, N.S., to Codroy, N.L., serves as a primary path for internet, television and long-distance connectivity between the two provinces. Bell said the December break occurred about five kilometres off Aspy Bay in roughly 30 metres of water, near the northern tip of Cape Breton.

Bell characterised both breaks as deliberate rather than accidental. David Joice, Bell's director of networks, said the cable, wrapped in steel and difficult to sever, bore what looked like an angle-grinder cut, suggesting it was snagged by an anchor or fishing gear, hauled to the surface, then cut by hand. Bell reconfigured its network during repairs so customers saw no service disruption, and said it plans to bury the line and may use satellite monitoring to deter future tampering. The RCMP investigated and, in December 2025, charged a 33-year-old man from Ingonish, N.S., with mischief causing over $5,000 in damage. Police said evidence showed the act had nothing to do with national security or any intent to damage critical infrastructure.

This is most likely a domestic criminal or operational matter, not foreign sabotage or hybrid warfare. Although Bell concluded the cable was cut deliberately, the RCMP explicitly assessed that neither incident constituted a national security threat and that the charged individual's motive was unrelated to harming critical infrastructure. The plausible mechanism, gear snagging the line before it was severed, points to localised activity rather than a coordinated state actor. No evidence in the reporting links the cuts to any foreign power. Some details (exact motive) remain before the courts, so attribution should be treated as provisional.