PHOTO: by Marcus Winkler on Unsplash
In this post, we are sharing an op ed piece by Denis Bouchard in La Presse. This builds nicely on our previous post, “The Canada We Believe In”. When people’s status can be changed at the stroke of a pen, and that change lead to negative perceptions and mistreatment, it is too easy to quickly become less than the best version of ourselves. The link takes you to the original post. What follows here is the English translation.
Migrant “hunt”: I refuse to be an accomplice
Denis Bouchard
Retired linguistics professor, Hemmingford
I live close to the Canada-U.S. border, south of Montreal, close to Roxham Road. In recent weeks, my quiet neighborhood has become a militarized zone. I had the incredible good fortune to be born in Canada, a country of law, prosperity and peace. I’m one of the few men of my generation on this planet who hasn’t had to fight in a war, or train to kill people during military service.
I was born in Hemmingford. If I’d been born 7 miles further south, they’d have tried to force me to join the army and go kill Viet Congs, though I have no quarrel with them. I enjoyed the nonchalance of the 1950s and 1960s, when I’d cross the border on my bicycle with friends, waving at customs officials as I went by.
But over the past quarter-century, the border has gradually become more tense and unfriendly, with customs officers waiting for you with a revolver in their belt. And suddenly, quite recently, the border has become a militarized zone. Military helicopters regularly fly over our properties. Drones spy on our movements. Surveillance cameras are installed at the end of our roads. All-terrain vehicles patrol the border as if we were at high risk of being invaded. The RCMP has distributed a pamphlet to border residents, inviting us to report “any suspicious persons or situations”.
By extending the application of the Safe Third Country Agreement [sic!] (by “closing Roxham”), migrants were driven to hide in the woods, and now they’re being treated like criminals for hiding in the woods. We put them on the same footing as real criminals, like smugglers and arms dealers.
It makes us wonder what we can do without getting into trouble. If I give someone a glass of water, if I allow them to warm up in my home for a few minutes, do I risk being prosecuted? How much trouble does the person have to be in for me to be “forgiven” for my gesture? Is it an offense not to report the person?
Is this my country now? A militarized zone? Calls for denunciation? Do you realize the kind of country we’ve been dragged into against our will? All because of a president who asked our government to do so, under pretexts that everyone knows to be false.
I refuse to be enlisted in military maneuvers, letting military helicopters fly low over my property as if this were the new normal. I refuse to be pressured into denunciation. And I refuse to be made an accomplice in the misery of these poor people who had the misfortune to be born into a dangerous environment.
Canadian leaders of all political stripes, stand up! Show yourselves worthy of your country. Denounce this militarization of the border for what it is: a charade to give the impression that something is being done. Leave this kind of reality show to its fans across the border.
