Heightened security complicates border crossings at Campobello

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, New Brunswick – New Brunswick’s Campobello Island is separated from the state of Maine by a narrow strip of water, but border hassles are creating a growing gulf of irritation and anger between the international neighbors.

The roughly 1,500 people who live on the picturesque island in the Bay of Fundy are proud Canadians, but they are cut off from the rest of Canada by the United States and a border that is steadily tightening to the point of strangulation.

“We’re isolated,” says resident Holly Chute, as she headed into the Campobello Co-Op, the island’s only grocery store.

“And we’re vulnerable. If there’s another attack in the U.S., something like 9-11, and they shut down the border, we’re stuck.”

From September to July, the only way on and off the island is over the international bridge to Lubec, Maine. Each crossing requires a border stop, and Islanders complain that U.S. customs agents are making life difficult.

“It’s like you’re interrogated every time you cross,” says Chute.

Adds one of her friends standing nearby, “I mean, it’s not like we’re from Iran or anything.”

During the summer, a private ferry connects Campobello to nearby Deer Island and mainland New Brunswick, but there is no ferry service the rest of the year.

Eric Allaby, the Opposition Liberal member who represents the island in the New Brunswick legislature, says Campobello Island is a classic example of a “stranded community,” one of several in North America now feeling the effects of the war on terrorism, food scares and heightened border security.

“The real difficulty arises with shipments of groceries under the bioterrorism act,” he says.

“There are also concerns over getting prescription drugs to the island. There are a number of concerns relating to different commodities.”

Allaby says discussions are under way with the private ferry operator to see whether ferry service can be offered year-round to the people of Campobello.

He says it would provide a reliable link between the island and the rest of Canada, without requiring the headaches and hassles of U.S. border crossings.

“As the border tightens, it may be necessary to have the backup option of carrying truckloads of groceries to Campobello by ferry.”

Willa Smart, assistant manager at the co-op, says the store already has experienced shortages in a number of items, especially products made with beef and beef byproducts.

The mad cow scare has shut down the Canada-U.S. border to the movement of most beef products.

“We can’t even get a can of beef soup across,” says Smart.

Islanders still recall the recent spectacle of one of their residents trapped on the international bridge with a bag of dog food, which was labeled chicken but might have had some beef in it.

Canadian and U.S. border guards kept sending him back and forth across the bridge, both sides refusing to let him enter either country.

He was on the verge of throwing the dog food off the bridge, when an arrangement was finally made in Lubec to return the food to where it was purchased.

“It’s ridiculous,” says Smart. “You never know from one day to the next what they’re going to let through.”

Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, says the two countries are trying to smooth out the hassles.

“It’s like everything else. The rules are established and look reasonable until you apply them to a place like a Canadian enclave,” he says of Campobello.

“Then you have to find a different way to do it, because it doesn’t make sense.”

Although Campobello Island is Canadian territory, it is a U.S. tourism icon.

It is the location of the former stately summer home of the late U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1960, a famous movie called “Sunrise at Campobello” was made about Roosevelt and his fight against polio. It starred Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson and Hume Cronyn.