“May these gates never be closed” are the words written on the iconic Peace Arch on the Canadian-US border.
“This area is the only place on the border between Canada and the United States where there is an international peace park that people can cross from either country, share the same space and be together.” said Dr. Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute.
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Trautman runs a frontier institute at Bellingham Western Washington University.
She recalls how in the early days of the pandemic, the unique and open status of Peace Arch Park became a haven for people separated by a closed border.
“They came here en masse, and many of these people were unmarried couples who could not be seen because of border restrictions,” Trautman told Global News on Sunday.
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But that did not last long, as concerns about COVID-19 led to the closure of the Canadian side of the park.
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Two years later, with most of Canada vaccinated and the border mostly reopened, the Canadian side of the park is still closed.
It turns out that the Canadian part is run by the provincial Ministry of the Environment, which told Global News that they intend to keep it closed indefinitely because they cannot check the status of the vaccine or make sure visitors meet the requirements. entrance to the border.
Some find this baffling as access to the park has nothing to do with actually crossing into Canada and the ministry is not concerned about the vaccine status of people visiting any of its other parks.
“It’s a mystery why access to the park and the opening of the park would have anything to do with Canadian entry requirements,” Trautman said.
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