US officials claim move was to curb drug trafficking while Quebec town says it ‘weakens collaboration’ among nations

The US has blocked Canadian access to a library straddling the Canada-US border, drawing criticism from a Quebec town where people have long enjoyed easy entry to the space.

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House is located between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont. It was built deliberately to straddle the frontier between the two countries – a symbol of cooperation and friendship between Canada and the US.

The library’s entrance is on the Vermont side. Previously, Canadian visitors were able to enter using the sidewalk and entrance on the American side but were encouraged to bring documentation, according to the library’s website.

Inside, a line of electrical tape demarcates the international boundary. About 60% of the building, including the books, is located in Canada. Upstairs, in the opera house, the audience sits in the US while the performers are in Canada.

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  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    131·
    1 day ago

    In 2018 a Quebec man named Alexis Vlachos pleaded guilty in a Vermont court to charges relating to a plot to use the library to smuggle backpacks full of handguns into Canada on at least two occasions. He was later sentenced to 51 months in a US prison.

    That seems like an unnecessarily-complicated plot to smuggle a small quantity of handguns into Canada.

    I mean, yeah, in theory a vehicle could be randomly searched by Canadian customs, but, then hypothetically, they could have looked into the odd guy at the library (which, apparently, they did).

    searches YouTube

    Here’s a Canadian driving across the border into Canada:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjXIVYfwoXc

    Guy drives up, answers a couple questions from Canadian customs, drives on.