Canada’s forgotten telecommunication lesson from 1914

The dependency of finance on telecoms is now unavoidable, and the major vulnerability we have forgotten about is sovereignty.

A major telecoms disruption can set off immediate cascading impacts that rapidly drive other critical industries out of operation, writes Tyson Macaulay.Unsplash photograph by Discover Savsat

Opinion

BY TYSON MACAULAY

October 29, 2025

In 1914, at the opening of the First World War, the United Kingdom cut all the German-owned transatlantic telegraph cables, forcing communications with German Embassy staff in the neutral United States onto British-controlled links. The intelligence harvested through those i...

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