Ah, so you have a perception of reversal of flow, that's what's bothering you, eh .... well let's review the facts of the Jalbert case -
1. the guy just went to get gas
2. the gas station is accessible only from the g.w.n.
3. [which means you can't sneak out to play Atlantic City slots from there]
4. you have to drive 75km to enter the US from there
5. you can spit from the g.w.n. to the fricken pumps
6. the guy is a logger, fer chrissakes
7. of course he's got a rifle in the pickup, it's fricken deer season
' A town where buying gas can get
you in big trouble
Residents of border village furious
at U.S. treatment of local forestry worker
By CAMPBELL CLARK
Tuesday, November 12, 2002 – Page A7
POHÉNÉGAMOOK, QUE. -- Bill Desbiens
filled up at the Gaz-bar Ouellette yesterday, violating U.S. law by
buying a tank of gas without first reporting to customs.
That same act ending up costing Michel Jalbert a month in prison,
with perhaps months more to come. But the U.S. customs post
just outside Pohénégamook, Que., had closed 30 minutes earlier,
at 1 p.m., so Mr. Desbiens, 56, said he "had no choice.
"What people have to understand is that this here is like Canada,"
he said standing beside the gas pumps on U.S. land.
"Theoretically, it isn't Canada. But logically, it is."
That seems obvious to people in Pohénégamook, the little town
across the border from the northernmost point in Maine. The
Quebec-Maine border cuts straight alongside a local street, putting
houses close to the street in Canada, and those set back a few
metres from it in the U.S. -- with some split between the two. The
gas station's access is in Canada. The pumps are in the U.S.
That is why most here are outraged that Mr. Jalbert, a
32-year-old forestry worker, was arrested Oct. 11 for failing to
report to U.S. customs a kilometre up the road before buying gas,
and that he remains in jail a month later: The gas station is
surrounded by woods and its driveway leads back to Canada.
Although Mr. Jalbert had a minor criminal record dating from
when he was 19, and was carrying a hunting rifle in his truck --
two reasons U.S. prosecutors cite for pressing the case -- he had
nowhere to go from the gas station but back to Canada, posing
little danger to the U.S.
And Pohénégamook is not an ordinary border crossing, used for
visiting Maine towns, but rather a customs post intended for
logging trucks. Only a private logging route, closed by barrier,
leads into Maine. It does not run near the gas station, but starts
beside the U.S. customs post, and winds through 100 kilometres
of remote forest before reaching any village.
To drive to U.S. towns, locals drive 75 kilometres in the other
direction to cross the border at Clair, N.B.
"There's no back door here," said Jocelyn Gagné, one of the four
"pure American" citizens of Estcourt Station, Maine, as the
American slice of Pohénégamook is officially known. "There is
absolutely nothing here but woods."
Mr. Gagné, a francophone, works at the gas station on the U.S.
side, but he cannot even walk to a street without entering Canada.
His family's house is a few metres behind the Canadian customs
post, separated by a waist-high fence. His neighbour Edmond
Lévesque, has a dining room in Canada and a bedroom in the
U.S. And Mr. Gagné is worried about the new "Berlin Wall"
attitude at the border.
Border squabbles are part of local history, however. In 1829 after
arguing about where the official border rested, Canada and the
U.S. asked the King of the Netherlands to arbitrate. The U.S.
rejected his decision, but finally settled for a treaty in 1842.
Whether Pohénégamook's Rang de la Frontière, or Border Street,
came to be astride the line when a surveyor's mistake was
corrected in this century, or when houses were inadvertently
moved onto the border to make way for rail tracks, is a matter of
local dispute.
Reporting to the U.S. customs post before buying gas is a
relatively minor formality -- but the border post, down the road
where there is only a lumber mill, closes early in the afternoon.
Guy Leblanc, the local Canada Customs officer, said some do not
even know it is there.
For years, Canadians haven't bothered, and U.S. customs hasn't
cared. A drive-in theatre operated next to the gas station for many
years, showing films to locals after the U.S. border office had
closed.
The district director of the U.S. Customs Service even put an
exception for gas station customers in writing in 1990.
But on Oct. 11, a Border Patrol officer was waiting in his jeep in
the woods behind the station, an hour after the U.S. customs post
had closed. Several others bought gas, including at least four who
had hunting rifles in their trucks, according to Mr. Leblanc, before
Mr. Jalbert, wearing an orange hunting jacket, was arrested.
"It's a trap, pure and simple," said Chantale Chouinard, Mr.
Jalbert's common-law wife. "Maybe he was wrong to bring a gun
to the other side. But let him pay a fine and come home." Instead,
a confused and depressed Mr. Jalbert was moved from jail to jail
in Maine, not even knowing he was allowed to call home, because
he does not speak any English and could not communicate.
U.S. federal prosecutors did not look lightly on his hunting rifle and
his criminal record -- a $200 fine for breaking windows and being
in possession of stolen property dating from when he was 19. He
has been indicted on one charge of illegal entry to the U.S. and
two weapons charges.
His lawyer, John Haddow, said he will seek to obtain Mr. Jalbert's
release on bail tomorrow, but he will probably be required to stay
in the U.S. until his trial is held. '
theglobeandmail.com |
