A library sitting on the Quebec-Vermont border has found itself an unlikely subject of the Trump administration’s 51st state taunting.
Recommended Videos
Straddling the border, Canadian and American visitors can legally enter the Haskell Free Library and Opera House without crossing at an official port of entry. A line of black tape running through the building is all that marks the boundary between Stanstead and Derby Line, Vt.
On a Jan. 30 visit to the library and performance space, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem crossed back and forth over the makeshift border marking.
“USA No. 1,” she said, before stepping into Canada and referring to the country as “the 51st state.”
“It was shocking,” said Sylvie Boudreau, president of the library’s board of trustees. “She repeated it two or three times.”
The library, which since its 1901 opening has aimed to stand as a symbol of cross-border unity, now finds itself in the limelight of escalating Canada-U.S. tensions. The incident was first reported in the Boston Globe and has since been featured in tabloids including the Daily Mail and New York Post.
Noem’s politicking was unwelcome at a library that aims to stay above the political fray, Boudreau said. “We’re a neutral space,” closed to religious and political events.
Library staff were only alerted of the visit when two U.S. Secret Service agents arrived a few hours ahead of Noem, Boudreau said.
“We could have said no,” she said, but “to avoid problems, to show good faith, we said that it was all right, that we’d let them enter.”
Noem arrived with “a whole entourage,” Boudreau said, including U.S. Border Patrol and Customs officials.
U.S. border officials told Noem about incidents at the library, Boudreau said, which included cases of gun smuggling into Canada between 2010 and 2011.
Boudreau said she objected to the officials’ telling of events.
“It was explained as if it happens every week,” she said.
When it was her turn to speak, Boudreau said she assured Noem that library staff also want a secure border.
Boudreau said she was speaking with officials in another room when Noem made her 51st state remarks, only hearing about it after fact.
“My employees were very shocked by what they saw,” she said.
Witnesses were unavailable to speak with The Gazette.
“I know it’s for the show,” Boudreau said, but “it’s abnormal … it’s a provocation.”
Boudreau said she feared the incident would increase scrutiny. The library already draws the ire of border officials, especially U.S. officials, she said.
“They’re bothered by people entering the library by the main door in the United States.”
Canadians visiting the library can legally skip border control by walking down a sidewalk in the U.S. and in through the front door. U.S. Border Patrol and the RCMP survey the entrance and can ask visitors for identity documents or go through their bags.
“We’re worried that the sidewalk could be closed,” Boudreau said.
Should that happen, Boudreau said the library will open a door on the Canadian side, which she said would only serve to complicate work for officers who would have to monitor two doors instead of one.
Staff can’t be expected to keep track of who comes in through which door, she said.
“It’s not my employees who are going to start policing.”
Boudreau, who is Canadian, said she hoped the library would remain neutral ground between Canada and the United States.
“Whether you’re Canadian, American, people don’t care. We’re like one big family at the library.”