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US decision to limit Canadian access to border-straddling library prompts outpouring of emotion
The AP ^ | 3/23/25 | AP

Posted on 03/23/2025 1:57:42 PM PDT by MAGA2017

STANSTEAD, Quebec (AP) — For more than 100 years, people in Stanstead, Quebec have been able to walk into Derby Line, Vermont to enter the border-straddling Haskell Free Library and Opera House – no passport required.

But municipal and library officials said on Friday that U.S. authorities have unilaterally decided to end the century-old unwritten agreement. Coming at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries, the decision is prompting an outpouring of emotion in communities on both sides of the border, which in places has been marked simply by flower pots.

Inside the library celebrated as a symbol of international friendship, Pauline Lussier and Chris Blais put their arms around each other’s shoulders Friday as they stood on either side of the line taped down the floor marking the border. Lussier, a Canadian, and Blais, an American met for the first time that day.

...Once inside the library, Canadian and American citizens have been able to mingle freely across the border line drawn on the floor – as long as they return to the proper country afterward. In 2016, then-president Barack Obama hailed the symbolic importance of the library, built in 1901. “A resident of one of these border towns once said, ‘We’re two different countries, but we’re like one big town,’” Obama said.

A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CBP, confirmed that the divide is about to become more pronounced. Starting in the coming days, only library card holders and employees will be able to cross over from Canada to enter the building through the main door on the U.S. side.

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Canada; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apfakenews; border; canada; dissociatedpress; fakenews; library; quebec; stanstead; tds
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Thoughts? I don't trust the AP so I suspect they are not telling the full story here. They put more emphasis on emotion than facts.
1 posted on 03/23/2025 1:57:42 PM PDT by MAGA2017
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To: MAGA2017

Didn’t the illegal who killed the border guard a few months ago cross into Vermont from Canada?


2 posted on 03/23/2025 1:59:22 PM PDT by God luvs America (6young 3.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: God luvs America

Maybe, but most likely not through the library.


3 posted on 03/23/2025 2:05:18 PM PDT by JSM_Liberty
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To: MAGA2017

In the Oliver Stone movie “JFK,” the Newman Building, which housed the offices of Guy Banister, a far-right anti-Castro activist, had two addresses: 544 Camp Street and 531 Lafayette Street. The same building.

The Camp Street address was on the Fair Play For Cuba leaflets Oswald gave out. The Lafayette Street address of the same building housed the FBI office.


4 posted on 03/23/2025 2:06:55 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: MAGA2017

Get real Canada. You’re been spending below 2 percent of GDP on national defense for years now. You don’t want Trump coming across the border because of overdue library books.


5 posted on 03/23/2025 2:18:12 PM PDT by Redmen4ever
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To: frank ballenger

In the Oliver Stone movie “JFK,”

You do know that the movie is fiction. He was telling a story. Yes, based on a real event, but anything in that movie other than what is verified facts should be seen as part of Mr. Stone’s narrative.


6 posted on 03/23/2025 2:18:53 PM PDT by Steven Scharf
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To: Steven Scharf

Of course.


7 posted on 03/23/2025 2:21:11 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: MAGA2017

The real headline is that people still read books.


8 posted on 03/23/2025 2:23:51 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Steven Scharf

Example is that Banister had died of a heart attack earlier but the film combined events to show him at the court session which happened later.

Similar to the compression of events in ones about historical revolutionary war or WWII movies which omit several weeks of arguing back and forth to make a dramatic decision appear to be the result of a ten minute scene.


9 posted on 03/23/2025 2:25:43 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: MAGA2017; All

Canada is just becoming more and more irrational and moronic about this.

All kinds of anti-American bullshit, but as soon as there is the slightest push-back every Leaf-Lib puts on their best wounded queen act.

Please President Trump, do the Anschluss and save us from this cringe-fest !


10 posted on 03/23/2025 2:31:45 PM PDT by Reverend Wright (Anschluss now !)
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To: MAGA2017

Out pouring of emotions, anyone surprised at who is emotional?


11 posted on 03/23/2025 2:33:06 PM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: MAGA2017

Gee, it couldn’t be that people have been using this library to facilitate illegal entry into the US beyond the library itself...


12 posted on 03/23/2025 2:45:09 PM PDT by Chewbarkah
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To: MAGA2017

Bring a terrorist, no ID necessary.

Back in the good old days, you could bring guns into mexico


13 posted on 03/23/2025 2:49:19 PM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: MAGA2017

Perhaps if Canada hadn’t imported millions of illegals from countries that do not love the west, this problem wouldn’t exist. Gone are the days when Canada looked and acted like Canada, and America looked and acted like America. The entry of the third world into both our countries has changed so much. I have gone to many places in Canada that I wouldn’t have otherwise known what country I was in. It never used to be this way.


14 posted on 03/23/2025 2:54:16 PM PDT by JudyinCanada (Praying that America's Golden Age includes Canada.)
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To: MAGA2017

Seems a bit much made of this. The library is going to build an entrance on the Canadian side. Problem solved.

People are sad about the changes but that will pass.


15 posted on 03/23/2025 2:56:29 PM PDT by Fury
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To: JudyinCanada

Exactly.


16 posted on 03/23/2025 2:57:26 PM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: MAGA2017

Library are for moochers


17 posted on 03/23/2025 3:01:20 PM PDT by Fledermaus ("It turns out all we really needed was a new President!")
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To: MAGA2017

“… only library card holders and employees will be able to cross over from Canada to enter the building through the main door on the U.S. side.”

Sounds reasonable to me.


18 posted on 03/23/2025 4:28:14 PM PDT by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals)
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To: Fury

A closer read shows that there already is an entrance on the Canadian side—but it is neither handicapped accessible nor continuously paved, so those using it may get their feet muddy (or track in snow).

The whole thing seems fairly petty on all sides.


19 posted on 03/23/2025 5:17:43 PM PDT by Hieronymus ( )
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To: Hieronymus

Yes, saw that. They want to build out what could be described as a proper entrance. My guess is they will have no problem raising the money.


20 posted on 03/23/2025 5:36:38 PM PDT by Fury
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