Canada: why are routes going via the US?

Connection within Canada detours into the US

[yukonjack]

Hi all,
new user here - hope this is the right subtopic for my question, which is perhaps mostly of interest to Canadians only (?):

When tracing routes from my home (in Canada) to some servers that I am looking after (also in Canada), I see that the routes detour through the US (I say "detour", since the geography and backbone infrastructure does not seem to require this kind of routing). Here is some neutered data:

Example 1 - - tracing the route to a VPS with OVH in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

> tracert xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Tracing route to [server_name] [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

 1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms my.router [192.168.xxx.xxx]
[omitted: various local and regional servers]
 xx 101 ms 97 ms 99 ms tcore3-edmonton_be1.net.bell.ca [64.230.119.232]
 xx 95 ms 98 ms 94 ms tcore4-calgaryqa_tengige0-15-0-9.net.bell.ca [64.230.77.105]
 xx 94 ms 92 ms 92 ms tcore4-toronto47_pos0-3-3-0.net.bell.ca [64.230.79.191]
 xx 94 ms 92 ms 92 ms NEWCORE2-CHICAGOCP_so3-0-0-0.net.bell.ca [64.230.186.118]
 xx 92 ms 109 ms 94 ms bx5-chicagodt_xe6-0-0.net.bell.ca [64.230.186.86]
 xx * * * Request timed out.
 xx 117 ms 118 ms 120 ms bhs-g2-a9.qc.ca [198.27.73.89]
[omitted: various other servers, up to the target server]

Example 2 - tracing the route to a VPS with DigitalOcean in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

> tracert xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Tracing route to [server_name] [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

 1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms my.router [192.168.xxx.xxx]
[omitted: various local and regional servers]
 xx 51 ms 49 ms 50 ms tcore3-edmonton_be1.net.bell.ca [64.230.119.232]
 xx 47 ms 47 ms 47 ms if-4-0-1.core3.VCW-Vancouver.as6453.net [64.86.115.13]
 xx 52 ms 51 ms 55 ms if-5-1-0.core1.00S-Seattle.as6453.net [66.110.25.9]
 xx 121 ms 119 ms 120 ms if-1-0-3-0.tcore2.CT8-Chicago.as6453.net [64.86.124.10]
 xx 121 ms 121 ms 120 ms if-22-2.tcore1.CT8-Chicago.as6453.net [64.86.79.2]
 xx 122 ms 119 ms 120 ms if-8-2.tcore2.TNK-Toronto.as6453.net [66.110.48.1]
[omitted: various other servers, up to the target server]

Question: can anybody with more insight shed some light on this?

(Needless to day, I'd prefer my data not to be gratuitously submitted to habitually snoopers,
but I also realize that this particular horse escaped from the barn a long time ago.)

[Terabytes]

Look up "Boomerang Routes" (Canadian ISP's)

Due to current technical, economic and policy choices made principally by private corporations, Canadian internet traffic is often routed through the US. Thus, packets originating in Ottawa and terminating in Winnipeg may pass through routers in New York and Chicago before reaching their destination. This is sometimes referred to as a "boomerang route," and frequently occurs despite the fact that the route is longer through the US than through Canada.

[yukonjack]

Thanks for the info!
I used your key terms to do a search and soon found that it appears my provider's fault.

Although "we say X":

Canada's largest telecommunications enterprise, Bell Canada, began touting itself in July 2013 as keeping "your data safe, secure, and stored in Canada":
"When it comes to data security, location matters. The laws governing data centres outside of Canada can be different - and less protective - than those here at home.
Bell data centres are 100 percent Canadian owned and operated. We keep your data secure, under the protection of Canadian government regulations, and hosted in facilities that meet top industry certifications."
(Source: [worldpolicy.org...]

The reality seems to be "not X":

Bell Canada, says the CIRA report, does not participate in current Canadian IXP sites, "preferring to force its Canadian counterparts to meet it in Seattle, New York, or San Jose."
(Source: [maritamoll.ca...]

Found more to read:
[let.snowden.in...]

Thanks for putting a spotlight on this issue for me - I used to live somewhere else and did not see this problem until now.