[LINK] "A 'devastating' border shutdown, a chaotic commute"

[rfmcdonald]

Also in The Globe and Mail last week, Les Perreaux wrote about the impact that the tightened US-Canadian border is having on the eastern Ontario city of Cornwall and the adjacent Mohawk community.

The waters around Cornwall Island are buzzing with motorboats, but these aren't pleasure cruises or the area's notorious smugglers.

The boats plying this part of the St. Lawrence River these days are mostly makeshift ferries hauling commuters across the U.S.-Canada border to the islands and mainland communities of the Akwesasne Reserve.

Long-standing animosity between Mohawks and border guards boiled over May 30, when natives protested the arming of customs agents. The guards fled their Cornwall Island post, saying they feared violence, and the federal government shut down the crossing. Cross-border travellers now must take long detours or navigate the St. Lawrence.

A month into the shutdown, there is little sign of tension between Mohawks and Cornwallites. If anything, they seem united against Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.

Mohawks filed an application last week asking the Federal Court to order the minister to reopen the border. They have allies among their neighbours.

[. . .]

A few kilometres south, in the middle of the St. Lawrence, Liz Sunday, a 62-year-old Mohawk grandmother, is making the complicated Akwesasne commute.

Instead of driving over the Seaway International Bridge, Ms. Sunday travels from her Quebec home into U.S. territory at the end of Ransom Road. Then she hops on a boat for a five-minute ride back into Canada. Without clearing customs, she hitches a ride to Cornwall General Hospital to visit her husband, Mitchell, who is recovering from a stroke.

Ms. Sunday embraces the voyage with grace. “I like this, you get to see people you haven't seen in a long time,” she said. “Maybe they should just leave [the border] closed.”