23. Every operator or other person in the employ of a telephone company, who listens to or acquires knowledge of any conversation or message that is being carried on by means of the apparatus of such company, and who, except when lawfully authorized or directed so to do, divulges the purport or substance of such conversation or message, shall be liable to a penalty of $100 recoverable by suit in a court of competent jurisdiction by any person suing therefor in his own name, or, in default of payment of such penalty, to imprisonment for a term of not more than three months, or both, in the discretion of the court before which the conviction is had.
R. S. 1964, c. 286, s. 23.