When the border straddles my home. Border villages between Québec and the United States

1. When the border straddles my home.Border villages between Québec and the United States Dundee/ Fort Covington, 2004 Conference Borders in Globalization (BIG) Ottawa, September 25-26, 2014 Frédéric LasserreUniversité Laval

3. Saint-Pamphile, 2004.

4. Stanstead/Rock Island

5. Border control, Canusa St, Beebe Plain, 2013 Beebe Plain, Canusa St: Québec on the right, Vermont to the left, 2003 Haskell Library, Rock Island 2013

6. Rock Island

7. Rock Island border, 2003 A growing US desire to control cross-border movements Rock Island border, 2013 Closed crossing point, 2013

9. Pohénégamook

11. Interviews with locals (2003, 2004, 2011, 2013 and 2014) show : • American border patrols have grown very nervous after Sept. 11, 2001 • Rupture in previous entrenched practices • Author witnessed clear uneasyness from American border police • Comment by a Canadian border officer : « ah yes, here you have a lot to say about border issues… » • Residents at times were asked to systematically report to US border office, even to fetch carrots in their garden or meet their boyfriend • Straddled homes: be careful of where you park • Arrest of Michel Jalbert, October 2002: « artificial border » • Some residents talk of « harassment » • Some point to the exaggerated control when going to the US side • Others underline the nervousness varies over time • Many residents underline controls in the villages aim at the wrong target: it is easy to cross in the country… so why harass the locals ?

12. Straddled villages in Quebec are nothing new, werealreadynoted as a curiosity in the 1960s • Became a security issue on the US sideafter 9/11 • Patience from the localsthat endure whattheyconsideruseless restrictions • There are no artificalborders, itistheir management thatcreatesproblems -> globalisation is one force; policy and politicsanother

13. Thank you !

14. Webster-Ashburton Treaty 1842 confirms 1772 mistakes in demarcation