The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that if you access the federal government's website from Vancouver, the Internet traffic does not travel directly to Ottawa. The Globe's Irene Galea writes that instead, it crosses the border and stops in Seattle before returning to Canada. In the face of increasing hostility from the U.S. government, an interconnection that once would not have raised concerns is prompting the feds to invest in a coast-to-coast fibre network, which could protect sensitive data from U.S. surveillance and add capacity for future needs. On Thursday, in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Prime Minister Mark Carney repeated plans announced two days earlier to build a cross-country broadband backbone, with connections to Asia and Europe. The announcement was celebrated by industry and various organizations as a way to improve access for those in rural and Arctic areas, support Canada's growing artificial-intelligence and data-centre ecosystem, and boost emerging technologies such as quantum computing. Canada's main sovereign east-to-west fibre backbone was built more than 20 years ago, and is increasingly vulnerable to disruptions, including from natural disasters.