Trump ends Canada access at shared border library

The Haskell Library and Opera House sits on the border between Canada and the United States in Stanstead, Que., on May 16, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

In a picturesque town on the U.S.-Canada border, workers under dark clouds were building a new entrance for Canadians into a library to replace one that had long symbolized bilateral closeness.

For more than a century, Canadians in Stanstead, Quebec, could walk through a door in the Haskell Free Library into Derby Line, Vermont, without passing through customs.

But U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has canceled the arrangement, citing the need to counter “illicit cross-border activities.”

Standing on the black line inside the library that demarcates the US-Canada border, Sylvie Boudreau, Haskell’s board of trustees president, said the Trump administration’s announcement caused “a lot of anger on both sides.”

“It’s the end of something,” she told AFP.

As a result of the U.S. action, a new entrance is being constructed on the side of the building to give Canadians access to the library.

Canadian access to the library has been restricted before, including when tighter controls were imposed following the attacks of September 11, 2001, and again during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the Trump administration’s announcement marks the first definitive end to an arrangement that signaled enduring U.S.-Canada unity for many in Stanstead, a town dotted with large Victorian houses about a 90-minute drive from Montreal.

‘Mistrust’

The change has stirred emotions on both sides of the border.

Derby Line resident Jonas Horsky, a Franco-American who frequents the library for its bilingual catalogue, told AFP he felt “nostalgic” for the days of unencumbered cross-border travel.

“We’ve always been united, we’ve always visited each other, but now we carry our passports with us. It wasn’t like this before,” the 41-year-old said.

For Canadian Erica Masotto, who works at Stanstead College -- a boarding school in the town of 2,824 residents -- it’s “strange” to have to enter through what used to be the library’s emergency exit.

She said she was troubled by the “symbol” the change represents.

“Why this sudden mistrust?”

‘Never be the same again’

The shift at the library comes amid a broader breakdown in U.S.-Canada relations.

Trump’s musings about annexing Canada -- made regularly through the early weeks of his second term -- enraged Canadians.

His tariffs have forced job losses across several key sectors, and late Thursday, he announced he was ending trade talks over an anti-tariff ad produced by the government of Ontario province.

As he laid out his vision for Canada’s upcoming budget, Prime Minister Mark Carney reiterated that the U.S.-Canada relationship would “never be the same again,” stressing that decades of deepening economic ties had been permanently ruptured.

Bilateral tension has impacted Canadian travel patterns, with the national statistics agency in June reporting “a marked decrease” in the number of Canadians visiting the United States.

Marc Samson, a silver-haired retiree who was picking up his wife from her job at the Haskell library, affirmed what the data shows.

“We don’t go to the United States anymore,” despite Stanstead and Derby Line existing side-by-side, Samson told AFP.

But, he added, political change could help repair the relationship.

“I imagine that if the government changes on the other side of the border, things will go back to normal,” Samson said.

Boudreau said the changes in library access marked “a physical end” to an era of unique closeness.

But, she insisted, “from the perspective of people, of friendship, of unity, the sense of community, that has been strengthened by what happened.”