Latest news with #SylvieBoudreau
Daily Mail
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Library literally split down the middle of US-Canada border will have to pay $215K in war with Trump over ban
A library that straddles the US-Canada border has found itself in the middle of Trump Administration's border debate, and they're not happy about it. The Haskell Free Library & Opera House is not a border crossing and never has been, but in March, it became involved in a political argument it didn't ask to be in when US President Donald Trump installed new rules restricting Canadian access. For 121 years, the quaint establishment has proudly sat both in Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead in Québec, Canada, with the entrance being on the US side. A clear black line throughout the building shows the divide between the nations, which politically, has grown much larger since Trump took power in late January and began calling the nation the 51st State and trying to enact high tariffs on them. Come October 1, the establishment will be forced to bar Canadians from entering its main entrance, and instead, make them to sneak through an emergency exit that is now being converted into a real one. Sylvie Boudreau, the president of the board, told the 'We don't know the future, we don't know what's going to happen.' But she exclusively revealed that the renovations the library must undergo in order to work around Trump's order will cost an estimated $300,000 CAD ($215,600 USD). In order to accommodate the US' marching orders, the library will have to undergo a huge infrastructure overhaul so its Canadian guests can still access the facility, which is governed under both countries' law. The overhaul includes making the side door handicap accessible and creating a separate parking lot for Canadians. Right now, Canadians are required to show a library card to enter on the Vermont side, but come October 1, they will have to go through an official port of entry to access the main entrance. Canadians, for more than 120 years, have been able to access the library through a sidewalk leading to the front door - something that both countries peacefully allowed. But now, signs in the parking lot warn visitors that Canadians could face arrest or prosecution or 'removal from the United States' if they do not have their library card upon entering the Vermont side. Guests will also have to leave through the same door they came in through, as the library is not a port of entry between the two once-friendly countries. Besides the astronomical costs, the library faces even more challenges as they have to appease both historical and heritage rules of both Derby Line and Stanstead, meaning the back door needs to be made of oak and other areas require granite. And before they can do anything, they need approval... after approval... after approval on both sides of the border. 'Everything needs to be in order to these requirements,' Sylvie told the In order to accommodate the US' marching orders under the Trump Administration, the library will have to undergo a huge infrastructure overhaul so its Canadian guests can still access the facility, which is governed under both countries' law. They're hoping to have a design plan 'very, very soon' and aim to have the construction done by the end of July. 'Our partners are trying to do it as fast as possible,' Sylvie said, saying the library will be prioritized when the ball gets rolling. In order to make the changes coming down from the White House, the library has started a GoFundMe since it does not have the funds to adjust to the new laws. Sylvie, who worked in customs for 20 years, knew the closure was coming for some time. For years, US Border Patrol wanted to 'restrict and control a little bit more' and after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem unexpectedly visited in January, she knew. 'I knew the next step was closing the entrance,' she said, before remarking that Noem was 'very cordial, to be honest.' That didn't stop Noem from joking as she stepped over the thick black line showing the US-Canada border inside the library that she was stepping into the 51st State, a volunteer recalled to Stuck in Vermont. 'I worked at the border for 20 years,' Sylvie told the 'I understood their reason, but do I agree with them? 'We live in a scary world right now. It's the worst of the worst.' She believes her past working near the border helps the library as authorities respect them since she does understand their job to a degree, but that doesn't mean they're willing to tell her what happens in the fall. She's asked them if they plan on housing more border patrol agents outside the library and if they plan on asking patrons for identification upon entering and exiting the library. However, she was quite firm that neither the US or Canadian agents will be allowed inside until invited and doesn't believe this is a political stunt. 'They can't do anything unless they're invited in,' she told the 'In the library, they have no jurisdiction.' Haskell librarians and volunteers will not be checking passports or IDs of patrons. 'It's not up to the employees to check that,' she said. 'That's [border patrol's] job.' They will be vigilant for crime happening in the library, as the Trump Administration has accused them of drug smuggling, which Sylvie said was false. In 2018, the library did have a gun smuggling incident where at least two Americans hid weapons inside the bathroom for a Canadian to pick up. Alexis Vlachos, of Montreal, pleaded guilty to smuggling backpacks full of guns into the North American country on at least two occasions. He was sentenced to 51 months. During the pandemic, families unable to cross the border to see family used the library as a meet-up place - something that staff had to put an end to. Since then, the library hasn't been the destination of crime, but 'every little incident gives them reason,' Sylvie said. And the Haskell library is aware it won't win a war against the US government. 'It cannot be more in the middle of what happens at the border,' she said, referring to the fact that the library quite literally sits on it. 'I don't want to scare myself or my visitors, but we need to be aware. 'It's all new, this is a page in history.' Despite being affected by the new president's border orders, the locals on both sides have been nothing but supportive. 'People are supporting us,' Sylvie told the 'People are rising above division.' Many locals are irritated with the new changes, with Vermonters saying they don't like the upcoming changes. 'For the record, speaking on behalf of Vermont where the library is, nobody wants this. This administration doesn't represent anyone or anything that we stand for or believe in at this point and it gets worse day by day,' one person wrote in the comment section under a video about the library. Jody Stone, the mayor of Stanstead, said the building is uniquely American and Canadian and 'something that everybody's grown up with.' 'The fact that Canadians could enter an American door without having to report at the border was something that was accepted and tolerated,' he told Stuck in Vermont. 'We need to make sure we keep it a friendly border.' 'I think it's awful that people are trying to separate books from anybody,' Beth Radcliffe, who is American but chose to enter on the Canadian side to avoid border agents, told Stuck in Vermont. 'So, trying to divide this library by nationality is just ridiculous.' The new rules even brought together Stone and Newport Mayor Rich Ufford-Chase to figure out a way to keep the library a unified place. 'It really touched people on both sides of the border,' Stone said. 'If you live in a border community, you know the bonds that we have between our communities and this is a symbol of that.'
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US-Canada relations tested as border library faces new restrictions
DEBRY LINE, VT ― If, by some chance, you find yourself in the Haskell Free Library and Opera House here, and you're looking for tales of heartbreak and disappointment, spare yourself the trip to the romance books. They're written all over Derby Line, Vermont, and Stanstead, Quebec, sister communities on either side of the U.S. and Canadian border, that have unwittingly — and unwillingly — found themselves thrust into the ongoing feud that's pushed relations between the two nations nearly to the breaking point. The century-plus-old library, which straddles both sides of the border, was built as a testament to the enduring friendship between the two nations, and a none-too-subtle thumbing of the nose at the artificialities of border lines. That's all about to change — in the most profound and visceral way possible. Last month, the Trump administration announced that the library's Canadian patrons would no longer be allowed to use the main entrance on Caswell Street in Derby Line, where homes proudly fly the flags of both nations. Without providing evidence, federal officials said smugglers and drug traffickers were 'exploiting' the library. They argued that the move would end 'such exploitation by criminals and [protect] Americans,' The Guardian reported. New rules set to go into effect in October will require Canadians to go through an official border crossing before they can use the library, the newspaper reported. There are several of those official ports of entry across the community, staffed by heavily armed border personnel. Library officials are working on a more permanent solution to make it easier for Canadians to enter the library and stay on the right side of immigration. The library board's president, Sylvie Boudreau, shook her head sadly as she recounted the story in a reading room that can only be reached by crossing to the Canadian side of the building. 'I think we need to rise above all that, and we need to be stronger. And this is what's happening right now, because that closure of the access, you know, outraged a lot of people,' she told MassLive during a visit earlier this week. That's because the ties that unite Derby Line and Stanstead run deep. The library's founding couple, Henry and Martha Stewart Haskell, were a cross-border love story. She was Canadian. He was an American. And those ties endure to this day. Residents of both towns head across the border every day to shop and visit family and friends. Expectant mothers from Stanstead travel to the hospital in nearby Newport, Vermont, because it's closer than the one in Sherbrooke, Quebec, the next big town. 'We do a lot of community things,' Harvey Stevens, a member of Stanstead's town council, told MassLive during an interview at town hall on the Canadian side of the border. 'We have an international water company that is an international water company for both communities. We also have fire departments that cooperate with each other,' he said, describing what he calls the '360″ relationship between the two towns. A local arts collaborative, CANUSA, provides cross-border programming, he continued. That interrelatedness is brought to vivid life at the library, where friends and neighbors on both sides of the border rub elbows regularly. Walk through the front door, where you're greeted by a mixed American and Canadian staff, and you're in the United States. Walk a few feet more to the stacks, crossing a noticeable line of black tape, and you're in Canada. It's possible to journey between both countries dozens of times in a single visit. And you'll hear American English and Quebeçois 'Franglish' spoken in equal measure. A clerk, speaking in French, recounted her pride in the library, its history and its place in the community. Head upstairs to the opera house, with its original wedding cake cornices and Edison-reminiscent lighting fixtures, and you can sit in the audience on the U.S. side, while performers strut and fret their hour on the stage on the Canadian side. But it's still a long way from the simpler times of the early 20th century and informal border enforcement. U.S. immigration officials started battening the hatches after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, according to The Guardian. Boudreau said she noticed another shift in tone after President Donald Trump won the White House for the first time in 2016. With Trump's second term in 2025, there has been yet another shift in tone, one further exacerbated by the Republican president's trade war, the 51st state barbs, and his dismissive use of 'governor' to refer to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In March, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem created a stir when she visited the library, hopping back and forth across the line of tape and repeatedly quipping '51st state,' a reference to Trump's increasingly serious talk about annexing the nation's northern neighbor. To say the American muscle-flexing didn't go over well is a bit of an understatement. 'I hear in my village, some people say they won't go into the States anymore,' Boudreau said. 'And some people are afraid. And I'm trying to tell people, 'You know what? Stop listening to all this. Okay, these people were our friends, our family for so many years, you cannot just, you know, cut that out.'' Which is not to say that there haven't been issues. In 2018, Alexis Vlachos, 40, a Canadian citizen, pleaded guilty in a Vermont court to charges that he tried to use the library to smuggle handguns into Canada from the United States. He was sentenced to 51 months in prison, according to published reports. 'We're on the border, right?' Boudreau said, acknowledging the challenges, but offering an attempt at context. 'But it's not something that's happening every week, you know?' Still, the bonds of friendship go only so far. And while both Boudreau and Stevens stressed that their nation's quarrel is with the U.S. government, and not its people, the frustration and hurt are nonetheless palpable. 'It created a movement of solidarity and unity that I haven't seen in years,' Boudreau said. 'Because, you know, over time we take ... things for granted.' In the near term, residents on either side of the border are looking ahead to Canada's federal election on April 28. The outcome of that race, between current Prime Minister Mark Carney, of the Liberal Party, who succeeded Trudeau, and Conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre, could profoundly reshape cross-border relations. Boudreau and Stevens also are looking to 2028 when Trump, who is term-limited, is supposed to leave office — though he has been making noises about circumventing the constitutional ban on serving a third term. Then, they both said, there is an opportunity for a reset in American and Canadian relations. Stevens fell back on the words of former President John F. Kennedy, reciting his remarks in a May 1961 speech to the Canadian Parliament. ''Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies,'' Stevens said in a way that suggested that he had done more than just commit Kennedy's words to memory. 'So many Canadians live in Vermont. Many Vermonters [and] New Hampshire people live in Canada. So I think that both nations, both people realize that it's not them that is doing it, it's someone else that's causing some frustrations,' he said. 'And they just sort of like hope that once this is over with, we can get back to normal. So it may take a little time, but I think it will.' 3 UMass poll numbers that could worry Republicans. And 1 for Democrats | John L. Micek Mass. Gov. Healey has a GOP challenger. 3 big questions we're asking | Bay State Briefing That light at the end of Red Line's tunnel? It's another shuttle bus | John L. Micek
Washington Post
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The tiny library caught in the middle of U.S.-Canada tensions
STANSTEAD, Quebec — For Sylvie Boudreau, it was only a matter of time. The retired Canadian border agent, watching from this quaint town on the border with Vermont, had grown increasingly alarmed as President Donald Trump upended U.S.-Canada ties. Trump has been threatening to make Canada the '51st state' — a taunt a Cabinet secretary repeated in front of her — and imposing tariffs on its goods over unsubstantiated claims of a northern 'invasion' of fentanyl and migrants.
CBC
24-03-2025
- General
- CBC
Border-straddling library raises $140k for renovations after U.S. limits Canadian access
Sylvie Boudreau says she is full of gratitude after receiving thousands of donations and over $140,000 to help renovate the entrance of the Stanstead, Que., library that straddles the border with the United Stats. "It is crazy. It's overwhelming …I have contractors starting working," said Boudreau, president of the library's board of trustees. Built in 1904, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House needs to renovate an emergency exit to become an accessible main entrance for Canadians after the U.S. government announced it is limiting access to that entrance, which is located steps into Derby Line, Vt. As part of those restrictions, Canadians need a library membership to access the building through the entrance that's located on the American side of the border. And come Oct. 1, those restrictions will get even tougher. Boudreau says the library will open a side entrance to the Canadian public on Tuesday but is already looking to build a proper door soon after. Launching a Go Fund Me campaign on Friday, Boudreau says the library already surpassed its goal. "All that money in that short time, I've never seen something like that," said Boudreau. "There's no words strong enough to say thank you to everyone. And I never thought in my wildest dream that this would happen." She says this shows that the library will continue to be a place of unification, "even if some are trying to divide us." The building has been declared a heritage site in both countries and has long been considered a symbol of harmony between Canada and the U.S. Until now, the library was considered a neutral location, allowing Canadians to visit without having to go through the procedures of a normal border, with patrol officers ensuring that visitors go back home once they exit the library. But on Friday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said during the decades it has allowed customers of the library to access its sidewalk without inspection, the area has witnessed a "continued rise in illicit cross-border activity." WATCH | How a Quebec town pushed back against new rules for library: Quebec town pushes back as U.S. tightens access to iconic border-straddling library 3 days ago Duration 2:29 Once a symbol of partnership between two friendly nations, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Stanstead, Que., has become a point of tension lately, with American authorities now deciding the way it functioned for decades posed too much of a border security risk. Until Oct. 1, non-library members attempting to enter the U.S. via the sidewalk next to the library will be redirected to the nearest port of entry — an approximately three-minute walk from the library, it says. As of Oct. 1, all visitors from Canada wishing to use the front entrance will be required to present themselves at a port of entry to enter the library from the United States, said CBP. 'The people are are behind us,' says mayor Jody Stone, Stanstead's mayor, spoke out against the U.S. government's decision at a news conference on Friday. Since then, he says he's received emails and messages from people around the world. "It's really impressive on how much the people are behind us," said Stone. "Canadians and Americans on the border have long been friends and allies so when one is being attacked the other comes and helps." Regarding renovations, he says the town is focused on making sure this matter is "at the top of our pile." For now, Boudreau she's waiting on quotes from contractors and will then approach Heritage Quebec and Heritage Vermont with the plans. Since the building is granite, she says they have to work with an existing entrance.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
U.S. limits Canadian's access to Haskell Free Library
DERBY LINE, Vt (WVNY/WFFF) — The U.S. is now limiting Canadian access to the iconic Haskell Free Library and Opera House. The library has been sitting right on the border since 1904, and has been considered a neutral zone for decades. As it currently stands, Canadians have been able to access the library's main U.S. entrance from the sidewalk without having to go through U.S. Customs. Now, the U.S. Government is putting a stop to this tradition. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson released a statement citing a rise in illicit cross border activity has led to the decision to stop allowing people free access from the sidewalk on the Canadian side. CBP went on to say that starting October 1, 2025, all visitors who do come from Canadia must go through Customs if they want to use the main entrance to the library. Haskell's Board of Trustees President, Sylvie Boudreau said she has a better solution. 'We will open a Canadian door. On the east side of the building we have an emergency exit. We're going to be able to go through that, go to the library and to the opera house, through that door,' said Boudreau. She said modifications to the property will potentially cost more than $100,000, an expense she's hoping friends of the library will help cover. You can find a go-fund-me site on Haskell's website here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
