By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
A festive human chain will stretch along the Quebec-Vermont border in Frelighsburg on Aug. 16, the International Day of Friendship, as part of a series of rallies along the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders, organized to celebrate international friendship and denounce tightening border restrictions under U.S. President Donald Trump.
Environmentalist, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) sociology professor and cofounder of the feminist group Mères au Front Laure Waridel is organizing the Frelighsburg rally on her property; Waridel and filmmakers Brigitte Poupart and Anaïs Barbeau-Lavallette will direct the event, with performances by singers Catherine Major and Cloé Lacasse, speeches, a cross-border singalong and a butterfly release. People gathered on another private property on the Vermont side will hold a simultaneous rally.
“Our approach is very gentle, but we wanted to go with what [our American counterparts] wanted,” said Waridel, who hosted a first human chain protest on her property this past March to mark International Women’s Day. “A lot of people find it disturbing to hold a forceful protest; people’s freedom to oppose the Trump administration is already in question,” she said. “We’ve seen arrests, human rights violations and the rise of antidemocratic practices and there’s a lot of fear.”
Waridel works with U.S.-based climate experts as part of her eco-sociology research at UQAM. She said researchers on the U.S. side are “scared” and researchers from other countries are being told to avoid the United States. “It’s very troubling – it gives you goosebumps.”
“Now is the time to create solidarity with our American friends and fight these violations together,” she said. “Even if there’s a trade war, there’s no war between people.”
Waridel said that after the March 8 protest, she was approached by Friends Across Borders, a U.S.-based nonprofit organizing a series of protests along both U.S. borders to mark International Friendship Day. At least 25 protests are planned along both borders, Friends Across Borders cofounder John Fanestil said.
Fanestil sees the protests as “demonstrations of cross-border solidarity and friendship, and pushback against tariff and trade policies, militarization and increased and unnecessary security measures that harm cross-border communities.”
Fanestil runs a nonprofit called Friends of International Friendship Park, advocating for the protection of a cross-border park between southern California and the Mexican state of Baja California. The U.S. side of the park was closed by the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection in 2020 to facilitate the construction of a border wall. Fanestil wants to try to change the dominant narrative about the nature of borders.“Borders are places of encounter, where people share art and culture and food and language. Most of what happens along borders is positive, peaceful and productive. There are truths about the border that are never shown in our current political discourse … our interest is to demonstrate the true nature of the border as we have experienced it, which is very different from the border which people in Washington,D.C. see.”
Waridel said she hoped the Frelighsburg rally would “give hope in a dark period.”
“During troubled times, some people have the reflex to kind of curl in on themselves… but we’re not alone,” she said. “We’re stronger together, and it’s time to come together and defend our values.”
For detailed information, search for “Ensemble au-delà des frontières – Together We Stand” on Facebook. Waridel advises people interested in attending to wear red, pack a picnic and bring a few friends.