Canada and the U.S. have long had an undefended border so local Coun. Daniel Boisvert doesn’t want the City of Delta to be the first to break that tradition.
He plans on asking city council to tear down the newly constructed fence separating the two countries at the south end of English Bluff Road, in Tsawwassen.
The chainlink fence, installed on Canadian land, runs for about 60 metres separating Monument Park in the U.S., from Tsawwassen, in Delta.
“My main objection is what it symbolizes. Canada and the United States have been friends for 150 years, give or take. We trust each other. That’s why we have this wonderful, undefended border,” Boisvert said Wednesday.
Canadians and Americans know they have go to a formal border crossing to go into each other’s country, he said.
“That’s why we don’t have to put up fences and walls and what not,” he said. “Symbols mean a lot to us and this to me, is a symbol that maybe there’s a lack of trust now.”
He doesn’t want Delta to be the first to put up a barrier between two countries. That’s how things start, he said.
“Let’s just not do that. There’s no real reason to do this,” he said.
The fence was installed by the City of Delta on Jan. 16, following a review of a November 2023 incident when a senior walked from Tsawwassen into Point Roberts. He was found dead a few days later.
The recommendation from the review was implemented to improve public safety and enhance awareness of the international border, Delta police said in the story that the Optimist broke online on Monday, Jan. 20.
But Boisvert said that November 2023 incident didn’t require this level of response.
Boisvert is going to introduce a notice of motion at Feb. 3’s council meeting asking that the fence be taken down.
The timing was not the greatest, with the fence going up within days of U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration and his threats to slam Canada with 25-percent across the board tariffs.
Boisvert said that the construction of the fence is a coincidence given current Canada-U.S. relations.
“Trump’s big on walls and physical barriers between their country and other countries, and on almost the very day he gets inaugurated, we put up a fence.”
He said he read up on the issue and was told by a U.S. lawyer that the fence violates the Treaty of Ghent which says you can’t put up a barrier within three metres of the border. The treaty ended the War of 1812 between Canada and the U.S.
He added that any such projects are up to both federal governments to decide.
He’s not trying to blame police or city staff.
“Everyone’s doing a good job. It’s just one of those things that probably needed to just have a bit more thought put into it before it was done,” he said.
Former Point Roberts chamber of commerce president Brian Calder said the Monument Park location was always used as a meeting place for families and friends from both sides of the border to visit and keep in touch. They would bring picnic tables and chairs and sit on the 49th parallel and visit.
