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This is a good story, but you can read both the Treaty of Ghent (which ended the War of 1812 while keeping the US-Canada border the same) and Rush-Bagot (which restricted naval fleets on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain). Neither document states anything about the border needing to remain open or without barriers.

The podcast's transcript suggests that their source for this is https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/peace-arch-u.... The person confidently claiming that any closure of the park would result in catastrophe is an immigration lawyer, not a historian:

"Saunders said the treaty stipulates there could not be any boundaries or physical barriers erected on the northern border of the U.S. — and if either side violated that treaty — the boundaries revert back to pre-treaty."

Since the Treaty of Ghent restored the pre-War of 1812 borders of both the United States and Canada, this doesn't make any sense. Canadian historian C. P. Stacey states that the period after the War of 1812 actually saw more border fortification than the years before (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1840618).

I mentioned that the idea that a 19th century treaty keeps the US-Canada border demilitarized was a good story, but I think the truth is an even better one: that the border is demilitarized because both countries know that they can trust their neighbor. Let's hope it stays that way.

We went to Peace Arch Park several times during COVID to visit relatives in Canada. And then I noticed the tents on the eastern edge of the park. What's that all about? I called it the End Zone. Couples separated by the border would meet there. One park ranger said he saw things he couldn't unsee...

I have a hard time believing that Canada would ever get parts of the US if America broke this. Even if the signed document included unambiguous promises written in the verified DNA of a famous American president or other extravagances

I really hope we get back to times where we were really best friends. It was good for both countries and was a model for international relationships/partnerships.

It's apparently a response due to a noticeable increase in apprehensions over the last 6 years.

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-107501

To a wannabe authoritarian, fear and uncertainty are benefits. They love to flex in shitty ways.

It's more than a little sad to me.

Canada allowed millions of temporary foreign workers in.

Unfortunately the border actually needs to be more sealed.

Truly, Trump is an inverse Midas - everything he touched turns to shit. Even if the Trump/MAGA administration goes peacefully (the fact that one has to state this as a possibility instead of a certainty is shocking enough), the Canadian road will remain, a permanent reminder of the idiocy.

You are absolving Canada of blame for admitting millions of immigrants from the same countries that often illegally immigrate to the U.S.

Believe it or not, the library predates the understanding of monads as a mathematical concept! Though it can be argued it is an example of a functor (the library is mapped over two countries).

Believe me an open border would do nothing but increase xenophobia. Canada is dealing with its own immigration crisis with a ton of newcomers DDoSing the overextended healthcare system and real estate market.

Agreed. Rupture is real and permanent, driven by one side.

I wonder what this regime's Swan Lake is going to be. Probably medication commercials.

> I suspect that Canada isn't fond of how Americans view guns

I'm putting this into my overflowing bucket of internet comments that doesn't "get" Canadians. Sorry to be curt but, since Canada-USA relations has been more at the forefront, I've seen too many comments that just "don't get it" and it riles me up each time.

They've had the 2nd amendment since their country was founded. It has no bearing on relations between the two countries, both at a micro and macro level.

We respect that they are their own country and have their own ways of doing things, which isn't even the same across each state. We respect US sovereignty over their own laws. It's the lack of respect for ours by the current US administration that is upsetting.

That's basically all its come down to. Oh, and the tariffs don't help either.

This... has... nothing to do... with how the 2 countries view guns or blasphemy laws (??).

This library worked well for a hundred of year, and then the US government decided they wanted to invade Canada, wage an economic war, and needed to protect their border at all cost in case an invasion of migrants would come from... that library.

I don't agree with most of what Germany does and I am sure they are not very fond of our (Switzerland) "liberal" gun laws, yet I can just walk/drive or take a train across the border and no one gives 2 cents.

Ultimately its one country unilaterally acted the fool and is reaping the rewards of that idiocy. Any other explanation of what's going on is either willfully blind or so uninformed that they should not share their ideas with others.

Yeah, could be that, could be the open threat of invasion, I dunno.

Canada technically had a blasphemy law on the books until 2018, but it was basically gathering dust, the last conviction was in 1927.

"Hurty-words"

Remind me again -- which country is it that demands to see the content of your social media feeds at the border, and then chooses to deport (or worse, detain) you based on what your feed says about their president and his thieving gang of companions?

Or detains and deports academics with green cards based on their stated opinions about what's happening in Gaza?

I could go on.

Cultural differences are not why this happened. This is explicitly because of the trump administration and its draconian approach to immigration. This is a very symbolic and sad thing to see happen