Intermittent 911 outages reported across Canada

Reports indicate intermittent 911 outages were experienced across several police services in Canada on Thursday morning. However, many of these outages were reportedly resolved within an hour or two. Police departments in cities like Toronto, Ottawa, London, and Waterloo, as well as the Ontario Provincial Police, shared the disruptions on social media, urging residents to utilize non-emergency lines in case of emergencies.

The Surete du Quebec reported technical issues affecting the transfer of certain 911 calls. The issue appeared to be resolved by approximately 7:30 a.m. ET.

The Montreal police spokesperson confirmed that the outage impacted their telephone carrier responsible for 911. Calls were reportedly transferred to other police services in the country. Further east, the Nova Scotia government stated that intermittent 911 outages could potentially affect some cellphone and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) users.

Police in Saint John, New Brunswick, reported that 911 was unavailable on cellphones but still functional via landlines. The Nova Scotia government acknowledged reports of difficulties in cellular carriers connecting to 911 across Canada and is working to ascertain the full extent of the service disruption.

The cause of the outage remains undetermined, according to the Nova Scotia government. They emphasized that residents should not call 911 to test the system's functionality, as this could exacerbate the situation and impact emergency operations.