The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that as copper prices hit record highs, Bell Canada logged 1,275 incidents related to thefts of the metal from its network in 2025 -- up 40 per cent from 2024. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe says Bell recently applauded a decision by a Quebec Court judge who awarded the company $24,000 in damages after it sued a man convicted of stealing copper in Chicoutimi, Que., in a crime that caused 94 customers to lose Internet service for more than a day. Rogers said the total number of outage hours related to vandalism in its networks, which includes attempted copper thefts, are up 400 per cent since 2022. The rise in thefts prompted Connie Cody, the Conservative member for Cambridge, Ont., to push for a crackdown on scrap yards that buy stolen copper wire. Last month, she introduced a private member's bill that would make it a federal crime for scrap metal dealers to trade, traffic or have for sale any scrap metal that was known to be stolen, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and a jail sentence of up to two years. New Brunswick requires dealers to ask anyone trying to sell copper for identification, but no such rules exist in neighbouring Nova Scotia or Quebec.